Blogs By: Scott Shibayama, Esq.

Now that the California minimum wage will increase to $9/hour on July 1, 2014 and to $10/hour on January 1, 2016, California employers must gear up for pay raises to their exempt employees.  That’s a 12.5% legally mandated pay raise in 2014 and another 11.1%…Read More

Can an employer and employee agree to litigate wage claims before an arbitrator rather than the Labor Commissioner? Two days ago, the California Supreme Court issued its Sonic-Calabasas II decision that was supposed to answer that question.  But the case creates more confusion in an already uncertain and…Read More

Who is an “independent contractor?”  This is a very misunderstood question in employment and labor law.  And no, just because you “1099” them does not make them an independent contractor. There are legal rules that determine who is an independent contractor.  And if the worker…Read More

Recent rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States have called into question key California arbitration decisions.  US Supreme Court decisions such as Preston v. Ferrer (2008), Stolt-Nielsen v. AnimalFeeds International Corp. (2010), AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion (2011), and American Express v. Italian Colors Rest. (2013) have made clear federal…Read More

We recently posted on class arbitration rules for business.  Just 10 days later, the US Supreme Court has issued another ruling enforcing class arbitration waivers in binding arbitration agreements. The case is American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant (6/20/2013).  It says a large charge card company can require…Read More

In a trio of cases since 2010, the US Supreme Court has telegraphed “best practices” for avoiding class arbitrations for consumer and employee claims. Best Practices To Avoid Class Actions And Class-Wide Arbitration First the “best practices.”  If you are a businesses that wants to…Read More

A California Court of Appeals has put another nail in the coffin for piece rate systems in California.  Bluford v. Safeway Stores, Inc. (5/24/2013) ruled California employers are “required to separately compensate for rest periods” and cannot compensate for them  by including them in a piece…Read More

A wave of vacation policy issues has crashed our firm’s practice recently.  A client’s employee handbook vacation policy had to be tweaked to comply with California law.  Another client needed advice on how to terminate an employee who insisted on taking vacation after their request…Read More

If your business has been sued you want the case to be over as soon as possible with the least overall cost.  This is particularly true if it is a class, collective or other representative action.  The U.S. Supreme Court in Genesis Healthcare Corp. v. Symczyk,…Read More

With new California “wage and hour” cases coming out almost daily one should not be surprised that many previously unchallenged well-established California employer wage and hour practices are now being called into question.  One of those practices is piece rate compensation. What Is A Piece…Read More