Unfortunately, in California, your business is not innocent until proven guilty. That’s just one surprising revelation shared by Alex Medina and Brandon McKelvey recently on episode #123 of The Manage 2 Win Podcast. Alex and Brandon are the founders of Medina McKelvey and California Compliance Solutions. In the episode they discuss California’s employment laws and share why business owners should be focused on training their employees and managers on wage and hour policies.
Most business owners in California do not understand the danger posed by California’s regulatory environment. Even the best businesses, those that treat employees very well, can get caught in an employment lawsuit (also known as a PAGA lawsuit). Here’s how it works:
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Predatory plaintiffs attorneys in California search for hourly workers of California businesses who may have missed a meal break, missed a rest period, did not get paid for overtime, or any number of other infractions
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Business owners get sued for even the smallest infraction, for example, if an employee only took a 29-minute meal period instead of 30 minutes, which is the California minimum
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The suit becomes a wage and hour class action lawsuit, in which every past employee and current employee is accounted for and the business can be fined for every single infraction
As Alex and Brandon explain, these lawsuits usually cost a minimum of $100,000 for a small business and easily become millions of dollars for large businesses.
On top of that, a recent California Supreme court case in California (Donohue v. AMN Services, LLC, Feb 25, 2021) has changed the landscape yet again.
Listen to the episode to learn more.
