Any California employer that has been in hiding the last six months or more may not be aware that California’s minimum wage increases to $9 per hour from the existing minimum wage of $8 per hour on July 1, 2014. In addition to paying more money to minimum wage hourly workers, the increase will impact other employee pay requirements. Specifically, minimum salary requirements for the administrative, executive or professional exemptions from overtime will increase to $3,120 per month (or $37,440 annually), from $2,773.33 per month (or $33,280 annually). Further, inside sales employees under Wage Orders 4 and 7 must earn more than 1.5 times the minimum wage each workweek, half of which earnings must be commissions, in order to be eligible for an overtime exemption.

For hourly wage earners, these changes in pay must be reflected in a written wage notice that California employers must provide pursuant to Labor Code Section 2810.5. In addition to providing the notice at the time of hire, the notice must also be given to the employee within seven calendar days after the employee’s pay rate is changed.

Finally, as we reminded employers in our January 21, 2014 blog posting, California employers should make sure they have posted the official Minimum Wage Order poster from the Industrial Welfare Commission (MW- 2014) in the employee lunch or break area or on the employee bulletin board.

This blog is presented under protest by the law firm of Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP.  It is essentially the random thoughts and opinions of someone who lives in the trenches of the war that often is employment law–he/she may well be a little shell-shocked.  So if you are thinking “woohoo, I just landed some free legal advice that will fix all my problems!”, think again.  This is commentary, people, a sketchy overview of some current legal issue with a dose of humor, but commentary nonetheless; as if Dennis Miller were a lawyer…and still mildly amusing.  No legal advice here; you would have to pay real US currency for that (unless you are my mom, and even then there are limits).  But feel free to contact us with your questions and comments—who knows, we might even answer you.  And if you want to spread this stuff around, feel free to do so, but please keep it in its present form (‘cause you can’t mess with this kind of poetry).  Big news: Copyright 2014.  All rights reserved; yep, all of them.

If you have any questions about this article, contact the writer directly, assuming he or she was brave enough to attach their name to it.  If you have any questions regarding this blog or your life in general, contact Kelly O. Scott, Esq., commander in chief of this blog and Head Honcho (official legal title) of ECJ’s Employment Law Department, at (310) 281-6348.