Hourly workers in California who are not fully compensated for meal and rest breaks now have grounds to recover that shortfall following a recent California Supreme Court ruling.  On July 15, the California high court unanimously ruled in Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel, LLC that workers who are not given meal or rest breaks during their shifts are entitled to premium payments that factor in all non-discretionary payments they receive, not just their hourly wages.  The lead plaintiff in the … [Read more...]

Office costs, not surprisingly, took a dive during the pandemic-driven work-from-home era. Looking ahead, if U.S. employers embraced remote work just half the time for workers who are both able and willing to work from home, they could collectively save more than $500 billion a year, according to an estimate from Global Workplace Analytics. The firm predicts at least a quarter of the workforce will work from home for multiple days a week post-pandemic. That means workers should be informed … [Read more...]

A new California law takes a giant step toward helping employees who have faced workplace discrimination. In a state that has more than 12.1 million workers — with 5.54 million of them women and 7.67 million non-white, just to name a couple of categories — the issue has broad implications. Discrimination is pervasive but often underreported. During the past year, many companies have been grappling with varying concerns related to that very issue, including Pinterest, Facebook and even … [Read more...]