California wage statements must have several pieces of information on them.
And now the employees wage statement must also address the new requirements for employee that are being paid by piece rate.
Employees who are paid by piece rate must be separately compensated for rest and recovery periods. Employees that fail to earn the minimum wage in additions to piece rate, must also be separately paid for their non-productive time.
The wage statements must include the amount of time that the employee spends on these periods, along with the applicable rates of pay, and also include the gross pay for these periods.
What is a Wage Statement?
This is log of all the required information. This can be a detachable pay stub, or it can be a separate report, but either way all of the information required by law must be contained in the wage report.
What is included in the report of wages?
- The Gross wages that the employee earned during the pay period
- The Net wages earned after taxes
- The Total hours worked that were worked by the employee (salaried exempt employees are excluded from this requirement)
- All appropriate hourly rates in effect during the pay period, the wage statement must also include the corresponding number of hours worked at each hourly rate by the employee
- The number of piece-rate units earned and any applicable piece rate if the employee is paid on a piece rate basis
- Here is something new for 2016. This applies to employees who are paid a piece rate:
- The total number of hours of compensable rest and recovery time, the rate of pay for that time, and gross wages earned for that time, and
- The total number of hours of compensable non-productive time, the rate of pay for that time, and gross wages earned for that time (This is not applicable if employee was paid at least minimum wage for all hours worked in addition to the piece rate).
- All deductions (all deductions made on written orders of the employee may be combined and displayed as one item)
- The complete dates of the period for which the employee is being paid
- The name of the employee and the last four digits of the employees social security number or an employee identification number other than a social security number
- The name and address of the employer
- This was new in 2015, so you need to make sure that you are in compliance here: The amount of paid sick leave an employee has available. Should the employer provide unlimited sick leave the statement must state “unlimited.” If an employer is eligible to use a Paid Time Off program to comply with the paid sick leave law, the amount of PTO available must be listed on the wage statement.
A Note On The Importance of Updating Your Employee Handbook!
As we looked at the new information that is now being required on the employees wage statements, it has become clear it is a new world when it comes to the matters of compliance with California Labors, and Cal-OSHA Standards.
So in conclusion I thought I would leave you with a brief not all inclusive list of new policies that you should have in your new employee handbook, along with some brief thoughts on where Cal-OSHA is going.
Some Basics of A Good Employee Handbook
- A good employee handbook will not have or imply as steps program.
- A good employee handbook will have the new sexual harassment verbiage that became effective 4-1-16.
- It will also include that policy as a handout to meet the current law and provide you with the acknowledgement receipt form that goes with the new policy, in addition to the employee handbook.
- A good employee hand book will have a current social media policy.
- A good employee handbook will protect your rights with a strong policy that explains that the employees are to have no expectation to privacy what so ever in the workplace.
- A good employee handbook will have a policy that prevents employees from using their phones to take pictures or record company conversations or documents.
- A good employee handbook will not have the word “probation” in it.
- A good employee handbook will now have the new Cal-OSHA violence prevention policy.
Cal-OSHA:
- Cal-OSHA, will be raising the amount of the citations up-to 80% this year.
- Cal-OSHA, now has new field enforcement procedures. Sadly these new procedures are not being published anywhere.
- The new enforcement procedures means that an enforcement officer can site you for every aspect that your safety program says you do, but you cannot document that you are in fact doing that.
- Cal-OSHA recently implemented a new workplace violence policy that should be in either your company employee handbook or in your company safety program.
Because of all the new laws and legal trends that have developed over the last couple of years as can be seen in part in the new information that is now required on the employees wage statement we will be happy to offer California Employer a complimentary Cal-OSHA mock inspection, along with a Free Review of Your Employee Handbook.
Things have changed so much that it feels like employers are being strangled by all of the new compliance requirements, these new requirements are not just from Cal-OSHA but have also developed within the California Labor Laws.
Should you have any questions regarding what information should be on your wage statements, or new employee handbook policies, or the new Cal-OSHA enforcement procedures we would love to talk with you. We love questions.