Skip to main content

Reminder: Hourly Wages Set to Go Up on July 1 for Los Angeles Area Employees


Los Angeles area employers and employees likely are aware that in less than a month, a raise in the minimum wage rate will occur.  For those that are not aware or simply forgot, take note!

On July 1, 2016, Los Angeles City or County employers with 26 or more employees will be required to pay an hourly rate of $10.50.  For those employers with 25 or fewer employees (or non-profits with 26 or more employees that have approval to pay a deferred rate), the minimum wage increase will be deferred for a year.  The hourly rate will continue to rise every July 1 thereafter for several years until it reaches $15.00/hour.  

Of course, the question arises of what kind of penalties will be put in place for a violation of this new ordinance.  An employer who violates the ordinance is liable to the employee for payment of back wages and an additional penalty of $100/each day the violation occurred (or continued).  Note, there are also administrative fines that will apply to each violation as well.

In addition, there are also notice requirements that employers must follow.  The Ordinance requires that employers post in a clearly visible at any workplace or job site where employees work, a notice published every year by the Los Angeles Wage Enforcement Division.  (See the link below for a copy of the most recent notice).  As many would expect, notices must be translated if at least 5% of the workplace or job site speaks a different language.  (Again, the link below includes copies of the notice in several languages).

It is important for employers (and employees) to stay up to date and track any changes that might occur as a result of this new Ordinance.  With minimum wage at the forefront of a lot of employment law related discussion recently, I would expect enforcement of this Ordinance to be strong.


For additional information:  http://wagesla.lacity.org/#information

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo

Happening Tomorrow: Connecticut’s Minimum Wage Increases

For those employers and employees alike in Connecticut, mark your calendars as tomorrow, the minimum wage rate increases in the state from $13/hour to $14/hour. This wage hike comes after Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont had signed Public Act 19-4 into law in 2019 which progressively raised the state’s hourly minimum wage rate every year for five years.  In fact, next year, the hourly wage rate will top out at $15/hour.  Beginning in January of 2024, the hourly wage rate will be indexed to the employment cost index. For additional information:   https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/News/Press-Releases/2022/06-2022/Governor-Lamont-Reminds-Residents-That-Minimum-Wage-Is-Scheduled-To-Increase-on-Friday

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa