Unpaid Wages

Under California law, you are entitled to a minimum wage. An employer must follow the law in paying you no less than the legal minimum. However, complications for minimum wages are not as simple as being paid the minimum. Sometimes, employers cut corners in other areas, such as meal breaks or overtime, which may cause your overall pay rate to fall below the minimum. Forouzan Law will review your wage statements and pay stubs for free. 

Overtime occurs when a non-exempt employee works for over eight hours in a day or over 40 hours in a week. It also applies when you have worked for seven consecutive days. Under California law, you are entitled to 1.5x your regular rate for overtime hours. You need to keep an eye on your pay stubs and wage statements in order to ensure that your employer is properly registering your overtime hours.

Let us analyze your pay stubs and wage statements. A quick review will reveal whether your employer is properly paying you overtime and double overtime.

Double overtime occurs if you’ve worked for more than 12 hours in one day or past seven consecutive work days. Double overtime also has an effect on your meal and rest breaks.

Salaried employees are still entitled to overtime. The only employment positions not subject to overtime fall within the “professional overtime exception.” This includes attorneys, doctors, certified public accountants and architects. Other than these specific four positions, you are still entitled to overtime even if you are salaried.

You may be owed more than one meal break depending on how many hours you work in a day.

Exceptions exist within California meal and rest break law. These exceptions modify an employer’s duty to provide employees with breaks. If you believe your employer has violated California meal and rest break law, call us today for a free consultation.

California law requires employees to be reimbursed for on the job expenses. Gas mileage, service related equipment and more. Additionally, an employer cannot make unlawful deductions from your paycheck. These violations are sometimes called “charge backs” and an employer may even come up with a reason why these amounts are being deducted from your income.

Your employer must reimburse you for job-related expenses.

If you believe your employer is failing to reimburse you for business expenses or taking unlawful deductions from your paycheck, contact us immediately.

Employees and independent contractors are treated differently under California law. Generally speaking, California law imposes greater expectations on employers than people simply contracting independent work. Whether you are an employee versus an independent contractor needs to be derived from the facts of your case. A thorough consultation with an attorney is necessary to determine the level and degree of control – or reservation of control – your potential employer had over you and others similar to you.

An employer may attempt to cut costs but miss-classifying employees as independent contractors.

Misclassification cases can be brought as an independent claim or a class action. Call Forouzan Law today for a free consultation.

Upon termination, an employer has a set window of time in which to pay you all remaining wages. If an employer fails to pay you your final wages within that window, California law imposes penalties on the employer.

If you have been terminated and believe you are due wages, call Forouzan Law today. We will conduct a thorough consultation of your matter for free.