Beginning on January 1, 2025, California began paying significantly higher paid family leave benefits and higher disability benefits to California families. Over 18 million workers pay into the California State Disability Insurance program, meaning the workers automatically pay into these insurance plans through their payroll contributions.
Read MoreMany U.S. employers use the H-1B Visa to obtain workers, and many employers have staffed nearly entire companies with such workers. It is a non-immigrant visa that allows employers to hire foreign workers in what is referred to as a “specialty occupation” for up to 3 years, with a maximum of 6 years. The Biden Administration took steps to “modernize” the H-1B program and the new regulation took effect on January 17, 2025.
Read MoreCalifornia has increased its minimum wage to $16.50 per hour this year, and nearly all of the cities with even higher minimum wages are in Northern California except for San Diego and West Hollywood. If you work or own a business anywhere in California, you need to be aware that minimum wage has increased across the entire state starting in January of 2025.
Read MoreLos Angeles county is trying something new to enable cooks and bakers to operate their own little restaurant by allowing them to prepare food in their own home. Starting on November 1, 2024, Los Angeles will begin a new program called the Micro-enterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO). This program will be available in all of Los Angeles County except for Pasadena, Long Beach, and Vernon because these cities have their own health departments.
Read MoreIf you think California has been making it harder and harder for employers to operate in the state, you may have one more draconian law to deal with soon. California is proposing a new law which gives employees the right to disconnect from all communications from their employer during their non-working hours. The only exception where an employer can contact employees during their non-working hours is during an emergency or an immediate scheduling issue. If you run a business, you know that many unforeseen events and many questions arise during the course of a business day - some of which can be solved with one simple phone call or text. This potential new law does not create clear boundaries. Instead, it creates many more questions that have been left unanswered. It also fails to take into account the practical way in which businesses are run, how issues are resolved, and the situations in which employees have a chance to even work overtime hours.
Read MoreCalifornia’s mandatory $20 minimum wage for fast food workers is already changing the way fast food chains operate. Business owners could have predicted the immediate outcome of California’s infamous $20 fast food minimum wage: rapidly rising prices of fast food and the mass layoff of fast food workers was no surprise. The fallout in the California fast food industry has begun and we are only seeing inklings of the fast food industry’s future. For fast food restaurants and their owners, the simultaneous increase in the 1) worker’s hourly rate, 2) manager’s salary, 3) price of menu items, and 4) price in groceries can be a difficult (if not fatal) balancing act.
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