California employers are very familiar with everything related to health and safety. What they don’t realize, however, is that the enforcement system for wage and hour compliance in California is very different from health and safety.

California’s aggressive wage and hour penalty and remedy laws drive up the potential exposure in wage and hour lawsuits far higher than any safety violation ever will. This is because of the California wage and hour penalty multiplier. California laws are structured to penalize employers by assessing a penalty for each potential wage and hour violation and sometimes stacking penalties upon penalties for the same type of violation for a period that can go back as far as four years.

In the dynamic landscape of California workplaces, the commitment to regulatory compliance is paramount. Employers must navigate many challenges to ensure a harmonious and lawful working environment. While safety and OSHA compliance have traditionally been at the forefront of organizational priorities, especially for industries like manufacturing and construction, a closer inspection reveals a more nuanced picture, where wage and hour violations have become a more significant threat to employers.

You have probably known for a long time that California businesses must comply with the state’s workplace health and safety laws. Wage and hour lawsuits, however, are a far greater legal and financial threat to employers in California than safety issues. This is the first article in a five-part series in which we share with you exactly why employers should treat wage and hour compliance like safety in California.

What do you think the biggest risk to your business is currently in California? Is it a sexual harassment case? Is it the economy? Is it the potential return of COVID-19? For some businesses it might be, but for most other businesses there is a much bigger calamity on the horizon. The threat is a wage and hour lawsuit against your business. Here are the Top 10 Wage and Hour Violations in California.

If you own a business in California, you likely have multiple insurance policies to help protect your business. These insurance policies probably give you a sense of security, knowing that if the unexpected happens, you’re protected. But, statistically speaking, the biggest legal risk to a California business is not a fire, theft, or even a lawsuit for wrongful termination or discrimination. It’s a wage and hour class action and/or PAGA action.

What are wage and hour lawsuits and why does everyone seem to dread them so much? The term “wage and hour” refers to the laws and rules related to the wages and working hours of employees. These laws often change and are updated, setting the stage for the many different ghoulish and ghastly wage and hour lawsuits. Here are the ten most common forms of wage and hour lawsuits in order of the least scary to the most frightening.

There are several reasons that companies can find themselves in a wage and hour lawsuit despite great efforts to avoid such a suit. The problem often is that businesses develop a false sense of security from engaging in traditional HR methods that have worked in the past to avoid legal risk, but that aren’t very effective for avoiding wage and hour risks. Wage and hour risks are unique and must be treated as such. Here we explain five of the traditional protection methods and explain why these methods don’t work in the wage and hour context.

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.