As a California Employer, Do You Understand the Myriad of Benefits Employees are Entitled To?
Learn what you need to know in our latest blog post below.
California has a myriad of benefits employees are entitled to outside of their regular wage. One such benefit California affords employees is vacation time, but there are many other benefits and reimbursements employees may be entitled to receive that depend upon various circumstances. As an employer, it’s important to be conscious of the many benefits your employees may be entitled to receive to ensure you are in compliance with California’s labor laws.
California Labor Laws for Employee Benefits
Social Security Benefits
To provide retirement benefits, wages earned by employees are taxed by the federal government. Likewise, employers are required to pay the federal government taxes to Social Security.
Family and Medical Leave
If an employee experiences a family or medical emergency that requires them to leave work, employers are required to give them up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave over a one-year period. However, to qualify for this unpaid leave, the employee must have worked for the employer for a year or for 1,250 hours. These emergencies include serious health conditions, paternity or maternity leave around the birth of a child, or preparation for a family member’s military service, and various other circumstances.
The California Paid Family Leave program can assist employees while they are on leave for their family or medical emergency. While an employee is on such leave, they can receive 55% of their earnings per week, with a minimum of $50 per week and a maximum of $1,067 per week, for up to six weeks while they take their leave through the program.
Sick Leave
For an employee who has worked 30 or more days in a given year, employers must provide them with one hour of paid sick leave for every thirty hours worked. For each year worked, an employer must provide 24 hours, or 3 days, of paid sick leave. These days can carry over from year to year, but are capped at 48 hours or 6 days.
Employees are entitled to use their paid sick leave to take care of their child, parent, spouse, or domestic partner, but not more than the amount they’ve earned after working for 6 months.
Workers’ Compensation
In the unfortunate event of a workplace accident, employers are required to have workers’ compensation insurance to cover the incident. If an employee is injured at work or becomes sick as a result of working, the employer must provide medical care, disability, and rehabilitation, regardless of who is at fault for the accident.
Commute Time
When an employee is simply traveling from their home to their daily workplace, employers are generally not required to reimburse the employee for their commute time, mileage or otherwise.
However, recent California law has added wrinkles to the question of whether an employer must compensate their employees for their commutes. When determining whether an employee should have been reimbursed for their commute time, courts will look at whether an employee is “subject to the control” of their employer during the drive to work. In other words, if the employee is able to use their time effectively during their drive for things other than their employment. For example, if an employer requires their employee to have their car full of work equipment during their commute to and from work to the extent that the employee can only reasonably use the car for the commute to work, the employee should be reimbursed for drive time and mileage accordingly.
Travel Time
If an employee is required to go out of town for work on a business-related trip, the time is considered spent working for the employer.
An employer must pay their employees for their travel time, but the employer can pay less than the employee’s regular rate of pay for travel time so long as the pay is above the applicable minimum wage and overtime. If an employer agrees to pay their employees a fixed rate of pay for travel time, then the employer must pay that agreed upon hourly rate and its overtime.
Tip Money
If your employees earn tip money in some way, the tip money is theirs to keep. Employees can create a tip-pooling arrangement amongst themselves, in order to discourage jealousy in the working environment. For example, servers in a restaurant can split their tip with the kitchen staff, so that all who work in the restaurant receive a portion of the total amount of the tip money any given night. An employer can also require their tip earning employees share their tip money with employees who do not earn tip money, so long as the employees are not required to share their tips with their employer.
There are many potential benefits that employers may be required to give from time to time depending on your particular situation, and these rules can vary depending on the circumstances.
Do you have questions regarding staying Compliant with California’s Labor Laws? Rupal Law is here for you!
Rupal Law has significant experience assisting our clients in complying with California Law on each and every benefit an employer is required to grant. For an obligation free consultation, please email us at info@rupallaw.com, or give us a call at (951) 460-0830.
