As
any business owner should know, California law requires employers to provide
employees with semimonthly wage statements. These statements must itemize (i)
gross wages earned; (ii) total hours worked by non-exempt employees; (iii)
piece rate units earned and applicable piece rate, if paid on a piece rate
basis; (iv) all deductions; (v) net wages earned; (vi) inclusive dates of the
pay period; (vii) name of the employer and last four digits of his or her
social security number, or employer identification number; (viii) name and
address of the legal entity that is the employer; and (ix) all applicable
hourly rates during the pay period, and the corresponding number of hours the
employee worked at each hourly rate.
Those requirements remain in place. But, in a rare bit of good news for
California employers, NFIB helped secure an amendment that will allow a
reasonable time period for small businesses to correct certain mistakes in wage
statements. Prior to this amendment employees were suing small business owners
for hyper-technical violations of the regulatory code. But now, employers will
be allowed an opportunity to cure mistakes if they have misstated the
applicable pay period, or if they have failed to include their correct legal
name or address. While this is a minor fix, it is a step in the right direction
in NFIB’s ongoing battle to curb lawsuit abuse. For more information visit the California Office of
Legislative Information.