Are Employees Working From Home Really Working?

What employees do while telecommuting or working from home apparently isn't all work, but that may not matter all that much, according to this recent article reporting on a study of employees who work from home:

What People Really Do When They're 'Working From Home' by Vanessa Wong, BusinessWeek, June 25, 2012

New NLRB Workplace Poster Requirement

Effective April 30, 2012, all employers must add one more workplace poster to their existing workplace postings: a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) poster regarding employees' rights to organize and bargain collectively.

Interview Questions Employers Shouldn't Ask Job Applicants

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- "Why aren't you married yet?" "Would you join a church to get a job?" Those are just two examples of questions job seekers said hiring managers asked them in a job interview, according to a new survey of more than 3,000 job seekers and 1,000 hiring managers worldwide by Development Dimensions International and Monster, the career-resource arm of Monster Worldwide.
Others included "Are you happy in your relationship?" "Who is your favorite Beatle?" and "What is your perception of the painting in our lobby?"

The survey findings are "a wake-up call for organizations that this is happening behind closed doors when the applicant is face to face with their potential boss," said Scott Erker, DDI's senior vice president of selection solutions. DDI is a human-resource consulting company in Pittsburgh.

Questions pertaining to family status or religion can easily venture into illegal territory under antidiscrimination laws. That means potentially exposing the company to litigation -- and hindering the firm's efforts to find talented workers....

Don't ask, don't tell: Questions employers shouldn't ask -- and job seekers should avoid answering, Andrea Coombes, CBS Marketwatch, January 28, 2008

California Minimum Wage for 2008 Increases to $8.00 Per Hour

As mentioned here last year, California's minimum wage increased to $8.00 per hour, effective January 1st, 2008. The 2008 rate represents a 6.7% increase over the old (2007) minimum wage, which was $7.50 per hour.

Some employees are exempt from the minimum wage law.

Others are covered by a higher wage law: San Francisco increased its minimum wage to $9.36, also effective January 1, 2008.

The federal minimum wage for those employees not covered by state or local minimum wage laws, remains at $5.85, until July 24, 2008, at which time it will increase to $6.55, and then $7.24 a year later.

Updated California work place posters for employers can be found here: http://www.dir.ca.gov/wpnodb.html

California EDD Free Tax Compliance Seminars for Employers

The California Employment Development Department (CA EDD), offers free seminars for California employers, to assist them in complying with payroll, unemployment insurance, and disability reporting and deductions for their employees. For many, your business attorney, accountant, and payroll service will handle these issues for you; for those without such assistance, these seminars may be a good place to learn the basic of complying with the numerous laws applicable to any employer.

Some upcoming Southern California seminars are as follows:

Avoiding State Payroll Reporting Errors Tax Seminar, Huntington Beach 1/17/08;

Employee or Independent Contractor Tax Seminar, Anaheim 12/20/07, Huntington Beach 1/1/7/08, Santa Fe Springs 1/4/08;

How to Manage Unemployment Insurance Costs Tax Seminar, Goleta 12/5/07, Oxnard 1/25/08;

State Basic Payroll Tax Seminar, Huntington Beach 11/29/07, Santa Fe Springs 12/6/07;

State Payroll Workship Tax Seminar, Goleta 1/29/08, Huntington, Beach 12/19/07, Oxnard 1/8/08, Santa Fe Springs 11/28/07.

For a full list of EDD seminars offered throughout the year, see
http://www.edd.ca.gov/Payroll_Tax_Seminars/

California Employees Granted Three Years to Sue Employers for Compensation for Missed Breaks

The California Supreme Court today ruled that employees have up to three years to pursue claims that their employer failed to provide required breaks, not one as was previously assumed by many employers. The stakes are high, because California law provides that, upon filing a claim, employers must pay to an employee one hour of pay for each rest or meal break that was not provided to the employee in accordance with California employment law. The law, enacted in 2000, has spurred numerous class action law suits.

California employers should take this opportunity to have an employment attorney review their employee manual and employment practices to ensure compliance and to assist in avoiding many of the legal land mines that exist in this area for unwary employers. Those without an employee manual or a knowledge of California employment law are especially vulnerable and should take heed of this warning.

The case in question is Murphy v. Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc., 07 C.D.O.S. 3958. More details on the ruling can be found at Law.com

Minimum Wage Increase

The Los Angeles Times reports today:

House OKs rise in minimum wage

82 REPUBLICANS JOIN DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY

By Richard Simon / Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON - The House Democratic majority, exercising its new political clout, Wednesday approved the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade -- from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over two years.

The measure heads to the Senate, where it is likely to be coupled with tax breaks for small businesses to win Republican votes in the narrowly divided chamber and to secure President Bush's signature.

The minimum wage has been unchanged since 1997, the longest period without a raise since the first minimum wage was enacted in 1938.

California employers are also reminded that the state's minimum wage has risen to $7.50 per hour, effective January 1, 2007, and will rise again to $8.00 per hour on January 1, 2008.  California is amongst 29 states with a minimum hourly wage rate higher than the federal rate.  Certain localities have an even higher minimum wage, such as San Francisco ($9.14 [PDF]).

Updated 2007 mandatory California workplace postings can be found here.

Update 1/25/07: As noted in a blog concerning California employee rights, the recent minimum wage increase may also affect the eligibility of certain employees to be paid on an exempt basis:

"An employee MUST receive twice the minimum wage to be exempt from overtime pay. Commissioned salespeople MUST receive 1.5 times minimum wage to be exempt. If this criteria is not met, these employees are automatically entitled to overtime pay.

Under prior law, employees had to receive $28,080 per year to be exempt (twice the minimum wage ($13.50) X 40 hours X 52 weeks), but now that number has risen to $31,200."