Wage theft can take many forms, including:
Minimum Wage Violations: All employers are required to pay California's minimum wage, which is $14 an hour for businesses with more than 26 employees and $13 for those with fewer employees. If your city or county has a higher minimum wage rate than the state, then your employer is required to pay you the higher rate.
Failure to Pay Overtime: Your employer must pay you overtime wages for any duration that is over 40 hours in a consecutive seven-day period. You are entitled to one-and-a-half times your pay for overtime hours.
Working Off the Clock: Employers cannot require their employees to work through a lunch break or require them to come in and work on a day off or a weekend without pay. If you work, you are entitled to be paid for that time.
Illegal Withholding: It is illegal for employers to make paycheck deductions for the cost of meals, lodging, uniforms, or other expenses.
Worker Misclassification: We often run into employers who misclassify their workers as independent contractors when they are actually doing the job of a full-time employee. Employers do this in order to avoid paying workers sick pay, vacation hours, and other benefits such as medical, dental, and vision coverage that full-time employees typically receive.