California Wage & Hour Lawyers

Wage & Hour Claims and Representative Class Actions under the California Private Attorney General Act (PAGA)

Under California Law, when a non-exempt employee works over eight hours in a workday, and/or over 40 hours in a workweek, an employee is entitled to overtime pay at a “time-and-half” rate for all extra hours worked. Non-exempt employees are also entitled to take meal and rest periods. An employee does not have to waive those meals and rest breaks – even if an employer asks the employee to do so. Employers often wrongfully classify non-exempt employees as “exempt” because they are managerial employees or receive a salary. The rules for what determines whether an employee is exempt are very specific. Misclassified employees are deprived of their right to receive overtime pay and meal and rest periods. In addition, all hours worked, overtime earned, and vacation and sick leave accrued must be itemized on paychecks. If an employer has misclassified you and is not properly itemizing your paychecks, your rights under the California Labor Code are being violated, and you may be entitled to overtime earned over the past three to four years. Many of these violations occur on a companywide basis. Further, employers often misclassify employees as independent contractors in order to avoid paying more taxes, denying employees’ rights and protections they are entitled to.

Potter Handy, Employment Law Group handles violations of the California Labor Code on both an individual and class basis. We bring claims under the California Private Attorney General Act of 2004 (“PAGA”), which provides employees with a private right of action to collect penalties on behalf of the State of California, the individual employee, and other employees similarly aggrieved. Contact us today to take legal action to obtain the money your employer owes you under California’s wage & hour laws.