The new health reform laws (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) enacted in March of 2010, give certain eligible small employers a tax credit if the employer provides health care coverage to their employees. The tax credit applies to employers with less than 25 full-time employees with average wages below $50,000 per year. To receive the tax credit, the employer must pay at least half the health insurance premiums for their employees and meet various other eligibility requirements which are highlighted [...]

While most employers are aware that Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination in employment against persons with disabilities, most employers are less familiar with Titles II and III of the ADA which requires privately owned business that provide goods or services to the public (retail store, hotel, bank, law firm, Etc..) and commercial facilities (warehouse, factory, office building) designed or constructed after January 26, 1993, or altered after January 26, 1992, to comply [...]

On September 27, 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision in Wang v. Chinese Daily News, 435 F.Supp.2d 1042 (2006), which held that newspaper journalists and commissioned salespersons' for the Chinese Daily News were improperly classified as exempt from overtime pay under both federal and California law. [...]

In March of 2010, a distinguished three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed its opinion in Rutti v. Lojack Corporation and issued a replacement decision. In Rutti the Court was asked to determine whether an employee is entitled to compensation for time spent commuting in a company vehicle, and for time spent at home after work entering data into the company’s computer.

Initially, the Court held that Rutti was [...]

Last week, in Vonda Norris-Wilson v. Delta-T Group, Inc., the federal district court in the Southern District of California granted class certification to a group of plaintiffs alleging they were employees, not independent contractors.

The Plaintiffs allege that Delta-T is a temporary staffing agency, that they were misclassified as independent [...]