Los Angeles Employment Law Blog

Employers in California and around the country are required to pay their workers overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours during a workweek, but certain employees, such as executives, managers and salespeople are not covered by the landmark federal law. However, these distinctions can become blurred when workers perform jobs that involve selling as well as other duties. Decisions about whether or not an employee is covered by the FLSA have generally been left to the courts, and a case dealing with these issues was recently argued before the Supreme Court of the United States.

In a 5-4 decision that followed party lines, the justices ruled that service writers at automobile dealerships are salespeople and are therefore not covered by provisions of the FLSA. The 9th Circuit originally ruled that service writers were entitled to overtime pay under a Department of Labor interpretation of FLSA exemptions, but the Supreme Court felt that the 2011 regulation should not be deferred to because the agency failed to adequately explain it.

A man who filed multiple claims against Roadrunner Intermodal Services and Central Cal Transportation has amended his complaint to add a count claiming protection under California's whistleblower protection statute. The amended complaint was filed in federal court on March 5.

According to the complaint, the man and another individual sold their capital stock in Central Cal Transportation to Roadrunner when Roadrunner acquired the other company. In exchange, Roadrunner paid the man a little more than $110,000 and promised to pay an earn-out amount if the company earned profits of at least $1.4 million in the subsequent fiscal years. The man was also hired on to Central Cal Transportation as its vice president at a salary of $200,000.

Workers in California and elsewhere have long seen Google as an innovative company and a great place to work. However, this can be both a blessing and a curse when it comes to discrimination lawsuits. If a company has a good reputation, it is unlikely to be found liable in such a case. On the other hand, if Google is found liable, the organization could be subject to severe consequences.

Prestigious companies may suffer greater punishments because they have more to lose if a hostile workplace culture is discovered. Furthermore, people don't like it when companies are hypocritical about their values. This can lead to a backlash from investors, the media and other parties. Currently, Google faces a lawsuit claiming that it discriminates against white males who are conservative. It faces another lawsuit claiming that women are paid less than men.

California has taken several steps recently to make pay more equitable. For example, the Equal Pay Act was amended in 2016 to safeguard against wage discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity and to make it harder to pay men more money than women for doing substantially similar work. Similarly, as of 2018, California employers cannot use your previous salary to determine how much to pay you now unless you offer the information “voluntarily and without prompting." That means employers cannot ask you in a job interview how much you currently make.

This move should help to reduce pay disparities in the areas of gender and race, among others. However, if you are applying for work and going for interviews, you may notice that some employers ask for your salary information anyway. Is that a red flag?