It’s mid-year and there are a few changes that have come into effect now.

Hands-Free Cell Phones While Driving

I’ve discussed this before, but now it’s actual law in California that you cannot hold onto your cell phone while driving. It’s time to make sure you have a policy about this and that all your employees understand [...]

As a California employer you may have thought at some time or another that the state politicians are just out to get you. Making things difficult for employers isn’t just a complaint, it’s a fact.

However, once in a while you hear things that are behind the new legislation. The law that goes into effect on July [...]

In a previous blog I wrote about the Starbucks lawsuit regarding supervisors getting a share of the tip jar. The San Diego Superior Court is not in agreement with Starbucks.

Starbucks insists that the shift supervisors are eligible to receive a share of the pooled tips because they often work the counter in addition to other [...]

California is hitting companies hard when rest and meal breaks are not honored … or properly documented. Protect your company by handling breaks correctly.

Meal breaks must be at least 30 minutes and provided if your employee is scheduled to work more than five hours. However, if your employee is working no more than six hours [...]

Yes, the holidays are behind us and all the things we put off until "after the holidays" are now crowding our to-do list. I’ve been in meeting after meeting since everyone returned to work and it appears I’m not the only one who’s busy this month. Of course, Januarys are always like this because many [...]

This is just a quick post to remind or inform you that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has created a new I-9 form to be used by all employers. If you haven’t already done so, download the new form and begin using it immediately. If you are already a subscriber of mine and have [...]

A lot of employment laws are signed and then go into effect on some future date. We prep for that date so we are ready to handle anything related to the new law. The new Military Spousal Leave Law (AB392) didn’t give us any heads up, so you better be ready for it now.

The Military [...]

As a small business owner, how much thought do you give to human resources (HR) compliance? Probably not a lot and that’s not uncommon if you only have a few employees. There are legitimate reasons why you haven’t felt the need to spend time on HR, but there are even more compelling reasons why you [...]

What makes an employer of record? The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says you are automatically an employer if you have employees or are a partnership or corporation or file excise tax returns. 

As you can see, it doesn’t take much for IRS to qualify you and require you to have an Employer Identification Number (EIN) (also [...]

Lately I’ve been hearing from people who are concerned about illegal activities in their companies. The activities haven’t been presented as illegal, just that the company isn’t doing what it should legally do. Is there a difference? And where do ethics play into this?

Ethics and legalities are not the same thing. People may have ethical [...]