Kim Silvers, SPHR, PHRca If you have employees in Sacramento, Santa Rosa, San Francisco, or San Mateo County, you’ll want to be familiar with the additional COVID-19 related ordinances these city/county governments have gifted their employers with this month. Since...
by Kim Silvers, SPHR, PHRca How many ways can we say “unprecedented” without repeating this dreadfully overused term? We’ve sent out weekly COVID-19 updates since the first week in March. I’m over it. How about you? Oh, but wait – the waves of the “Return from...
By Jennifer Duggan and Susanna Matingou In this uncertain era of COVID-19, at least one thing is sure: teleworking is not going anywhere. Our collective initial foray into mass teleworking was abrupt, mandatory, and perhaps best described as trial by fire. However,...
By Laurie Nooren, SPHR, PHRca, SHRM-CP The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) states that eligible employees* are allowed time off from work to care for a child with a “serious health condition,” which includes both physical and psychological care as well as making...
By Stacey Sommerhauser, SPHR, PHRca, SHRM-SCP The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) gave the W-4 a makeover for 2020. This is the first major redesign of the form since 1987. The 2020 W-4 will look very different from previous versions to you and your employees, as the...
By Jennifer L. Lippi, SPHR, PHRca On October 9, 2019, the California Court of Appeal in Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel, LLC, issued a decision clarifying the rate of pay at which an employer must pay meal and rest period premiums. As you likely know, if an employee...
By Stacey Sommerhauser, SPHR, PHRca, SHRM-SCP If you’ve lived in California for any length of time you know we are about to start California’s wildfire season. The fire season in California has been starting earlier and ending later each year. As I write this article...
By Shaw Law Group “Reprinted with permission from the Daily Recorder, a Daily Journal Corp. publication” Some California employers offer, or may be considering, “unlimited” paid time off plans (“unlimited PTO”) in lieu of traditional accrued vacation or PTO. The...
Governor Newsom signed SB 83 this summer, extending the maximum period of paid family leave insurance (PFLI) wage replacement benefits from six to eight weeks beginning on July 1, 2020. Although this is not currently an employer funded program (deductions are made...
By Laurie Nooren, PHR, PHRca, SHRM-CP In early July, Governor Newsom signed into law a bill (SB188), making it clear that California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and Education Code protect individuals with race traits, such as hair texture and hair...
This Month’s Top Three Questions We receive hundreds of employer inquiries every month about a variety of employment related topics. Here are the big hits we’re hearing a lot about these days and a bit of our findings… It’s so much easier and cheaper to have an...
By Katie McConnell Olson, CPA, PHR Have you ever sat in complete silence with a stranger for ten whole minutes? It feels like a really long time. Sometimes two minutes of silence with a stranger can feel like a lifetime! The good news is that there is real power in...
By Stacey Sommerhauser, SPHR, PHRca, SHRM-SCP Social Security No-Match letters aren’t new. If you were in HR or Payroll in the last 10-15 years you’ve seen these letters from the Social Security Administration (SSA) in years past notifying you that you have an...
Who would have guessed a year ago that CA employers would be required to train every employee and manager in their firms this year on avoiding sexual harassment claims and other related topics? As you may have heard by now, every CA employer with 5 or more employees...
By Kate Kriner This article was edited on 6/17/2020 to update the June 2020 deadline to September 30, 2020 As your efforts to retain good employees in the current labor market become more challenging, you might have considered offering a Retirement Saving Plan to your...
By Jennifer L. Lippi, J.D., SPHR, PHRca Generally, each year employers with 100 of more employees, and federal contractors with 50 or more employees, are required to file the EEO-1 report, providing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) with data on the...
By Laurie Nooren, PHR, PHRca, SHRM-CP California employers and employees are likely familiar with the reporting time pay requirements included in most of our Industrial Wage Orders. Hang on, because this type of pay is changing, and it may impact your business now or...
Although we share this reminder with our retained clients each December, we want to ensure employers are up to speed on the minimum wage ripple effect. Savvy employers know the minimum wage for non-exempt/hourly employees has risen once again (and will continue to do...
By Jennifer L. Lippi, SPHR, PHRca California’s Assembly Bill 450 (“AB 450”), also known as the “Immigration Worker Protection Act,” was passed in 2017 in response to expected immigration actions by the Trump Administration. As we told you way back then, AB 450 in...
By Stacey Sommerhauser, SPHR, PHRca Last year we wrote about the ban on asking applicants about their salary history (AB 168) prior to employment. This CA law was based, in part, on the belief that pay based exclusively on prior wages can be risky as it further...