As California Governor Gavin Newsom's administration seeks to finalize the 2023-24 Governor's Budget, the California Joint Legislative Audit Committee has moved to audit the persistent backlog of wage theft cases at the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.

San Mateo County (the County) enacted a new minimum wage ordinance that took effect April 1, 2023. The County's minimum wage is an hourly rate of $16.50. Beginning January 1, 2024, and each January thereafter there will be increases in the rate.

Recently, a California court of appeal held that employees can pursue Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claims for violations of California's Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 (HWHF) (Labor Code § 245 et seq.) The HWHF generally requires employers provide eligible employees at least three paid sick days per year.

In O'Reilly v. Daugherty Systems, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit[1] ruled that, for purposes of the Equal Pay Act (EPA) claim, greater experience can serve as a legitimate reason for a pay differential on March 29, 2023.

Illinois Governor Jay Pritzker signed into law the Paid Leave for All Workers Act (PLFAW) on March 13, 2023, adopting the bill that the Illinois General Assembly passed on January 10, 2023. The law guarantees all Illinois workers at least 40 hours of paid leave (or a pro rata amount, depending on the number of hours worked) in a 12-month period starting January 1, 2024.

On March 3, 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law an amendment to New York State's pending Pay Transparency Law, which will become effective on September 17, 2023. A summary of the amendment can be found here.

The City of Los Angeles' Fair Work Week Ordinance will take effect on April 1, 2023. Generally, the Fair Work Week Ordinance requires retail businesses in Los Angeles with 300 employees or more to follow certain scheduling restrictions.

As previously discussed here, the California Supreme Court determined that "missed-break premium pay constitutes wages" for purposes of waiting-time penalties pursuant to California Labor Code Section 203 in Naranjo v.

In Camp v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc., H049033, the California Court of Appeal for the Sixth District analyzed legal authority regarding an employer's rounding practices as they pertain to timekeeping.

In November 2024, California voters will have the opportunity to pass a ballot initiative to repeal the California Labor Code's (Labor Code) Private Attorneys General Act of 2004, Cal. Lab. Code § 2698, et seq. (PAGA).

The California Supreme Court denied review of an appellate court judgment in favor of Simplot in a case called Coronel v. Pinnacle Agriculture Distribution, Inc. (Coronel).

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled in Helix Energy Solutions Group v. Hewitt that a daily-rate worker who earned over $200,000 annually was not exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime requirements.

Effective February 19, 2023, San Francisco employers with 100 or more employees worldwide will be required to pay employees who are military reservists and who are called for military duty the difference between their military salary and their civil salary as employees.

Multiple new laws took effect in Washington at the beginning of the year, including several that increased the minimum wage in various locations across the state. Further details can be found here.

California's Senate Bill 1162, a pay transparency law aimed at identifying pay disparities based on gender, ethnicity, and race, went into effect on January 1, 2023.