Governor Brown Helps Employees

Thanks to Governor Jerry Brown, 2014 is going to be a good year for personal attendants and minimum wage workers, along with workers who need paid leave to take care of non-immediate family members, with new laws that will take effect in the new year.

1) Under a bill that Governor Brown signed into law last month, which will be known as the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, personal attendants will have to be paid overtime wages if they work more than nine hours in a day or 45 hours in a week. Such workers are currently exempt from the state’s overtime laws.

2) Governor Brown also signed AB 10 into law last month. AB 10 amends Labor Code section 1182.12 to increase California’s minimum wage from $8 per hour to $9 per hour, effective July 1, 2014, and to $10 per hour, effective January 1, 2016.

3) Also signed into law is a bill that extends paid family leave, which currently only provides up to six weeks of wage benefits to workers taking time off to take care of a sick child, spouse (same sex too), or parent, or to bond with a newly born child or recently placed adopted/foster care child. The full list of eligibility requirements are stated in the EDD’s website here. Starting in 2014, this right is extended for workers to take care of their non-immediate family members such as their siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, and in-law parents.

Please note that the information I am providing here in this entry, or in my website is NOT to be construed as legal advice nor is it meant to form an attorney-client relationship. For a free legal consultation by phone, please call or email me anytime.