Signal Staff Writer
State employment laws have only gotten trickier to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic, business owners were told Monday as the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce held its annual Employment Law Update in person for the first time since the pandemic began.
Brian Koegle, a partner at Poole Shaffery & Koegle, LLP, spoke to an audience of mainly small-business owners and members of the SCV Chamber of Commerce about the latest updates in employment law, COVID-19 regulations, and new federal and state regulations.
“If you don’t get it right, you might be going to jail.”
Koegle started with the minimum wage of Los Angeles County, which is $15 per hour if you have 16 or more employees. He said the responsibility lies with the employer, not the employee, to be updated regarding the latest state and county wage regulations. He spoke about the differences in federal and state minimum salary requirements, as well as computer-related occupations.
A written job description, he said, is crucial and must be updated regularly. Here, too, the burden lies with the employer. This includes an employee handbook to ensure “that your policies are consistent with what you’re actually doing in practice,” which could come in handy especially during possible litigation.
While talking about wage and hour requirements, he reminded the employers to keep updated data. Rounding off employee hours worked is permitted — however, it is never permitted for meal periods. Meal...
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