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.