In the waning days of the
2006 legislative session, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed several wage-hour bills. Here’s
a look at what employers need to know about these new laws, all of which take
effect on Jan. 1, 2007.
Wage Statements
A.B. 2095 harmonizes
existing—but confusing— Labor Code provisions regarding recording overtime hours
on pay stubs. Currently, Labor Code Section 204 requires employers to pay
overtime wages no later than the payday for the next payroll period. However,
overtime hours worked in a payroll period must be recorded on the itemized wage
statement for that same payroll period. Thus, while overtime hours worked but
not yet paid are reflected on one wage statement, the payment occurs on the
next.
The new measure revises
Section 204 to permit employers to instead show the overtime hours worked in a
pay period on the wage statement for the next regular pay period. The hours
must be itemized as corrections, and the corrections must give the dates of the
pay period to which they refer. This method will permit employees to see their
overtime hours and receive payment for them in the same pay period.
The HR Management & Compliance Report: How To Comply with California Wage & Hour Law, explains everything you need to know to stay in compliance with the state’s complex and ever-changing rules, laws, and regulations in this area. Coverage on bonuses, meal and rest breaks, overtime, alternative workweeks, final paychecks, and more.
Final Pay for Motion
Picture and Entertainment Employees
A.B. 3051 revises Labor
Code Section 201.5 to provide that an employee engaged in the production or
broadcast of motion
pictures and whose employment terminates—whether by discharge, layoff, resignation,
completion of employment, or otherwise—is entitled to be given wages earned and
unpaid at the time of termination by the next regular payday. Previously, these
employees were entitled to final pay within 24 hours on discharge or layoff,
and pay at the next regular payday when employment ended for any other reason.
Under the new provision,
an employee is considered to be engaged in the production or broadcasting of
motion pictures provided: 1) the employee’s job duties relate to or support the
production or broadcasting of motion pictures or the facilities or equipment
used in the production or broadcasting; and 2) the employee is hired for a
period of limited duration to provide services relating to or supporting a
particular motion picture production or broadcasting project, or is hired for
one or more daily or weekly calls (meaning that the employment will expire at
the conclusion of one day or one week, unless renewed).
The new law further
provides that final wage payments may be mailed to the employee or made available
to the employee at a location the employer specifies in the county where the
employee was hired or performed labor. The payment date is the date of mailing
or the date the wages are made available at a location the employer names.
In addition, the new law
states that a collective bargaining agreement can provide for different
provisions for final payments to employees engaged in the production or
broadcasting of motion pictures, but the time limits cannot exceed those that
Labor Code Section 204 sets out for paying wages.
Another measure, S.B.
1719, permits entertainment industry employees and their employers to enter
into a collective bargaining agreement that establishes a time limit for paying
wages after an employee is discharged or laid off. This law applies to
employees who work at a venue that hosts live theatrical or concert events and are
enrolled in and routinely dispatched to jobs through a hiring hall or other
system of regular short-term employment established in accordance with a bona
fide collective bargaining agreement.
You can link to these new
laws online at www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html.