What Is Minimum Wage
The California minimum wage law is something that every resident of the state of California needs to know. Workers are going to be protected when employed in the state and this means that they can not earn less than a certain amount for their work. Employees will find this law to be one of the essentials to be able to ensure that an employer treats them right.
Eight dollars per hour is the current standard in the sate, so all employees need to be earning at least this amount when they are working for the time that they work. So for employees in this state this is the lowest amount of hourly compensation that they can receive. The US actually puts laws into effect that give an hourly compensation rate that is the lowest standard amount for anyone in the US.
Sometimes the state and federal standards are not going to be the same. In this case it can be confusing for the employer about what is required for them to pay employees. In this case, which is the current situation in California, the employer is required to pay the higher amount between the two.
Employers must pay their employees at least eight dollars per hour or they risk breaking the law.. There are some exceptions to this that allow an employer to pay an employee less money. These are rare though and very specific or the employer would be breaking the law.
One of the main reasons that an employer can pay less is that the employee is working in that type of business for the time. This means that while they are going through their training an employee can be paid different rates. Eighty five percent of the required rate is what must be paid in these situations.
Additionally the lower rate can only be paid when the individual has not worked in the field or even trained in the field. Plus the eighty five percent standard also has to be upheld. When the employee can earn sales bonuses, sales commissions, and tips then they also can be paid a different or lower rate
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Employees related to their employer as a spouse, parent, or child are an additional exception to the law. Then so are the apprentices that are part of the State Division of Apprenticeship. The only other exceptions are those working for the state when the state has yet to finish a budget, physically and mentally challenged people, and non-profit employers who employee the former.
When one finds out that they are earning less then the California minimum wage law states that they should there is a plan of recourse that they can take. The first thing that they must do is file a wage claim with the Division of Labor Standard Enforcement and even a lawsuit to recover the income that they should have been getting. It should also be noted that there is no exception to the law based on ethnicity, age, sex, or orientation.
