198 | 2023 Cal-Peculiarities ©2023 Seyfarth Shaw LLP www.seyfarth.com requires an extra hour of pay for each daily failure to provide a rest or recovery break (see § 7.10), requires employers to provide employees with suitable seats wherever the nature of the work reasonably permits seating (see § 7.11), requires employers to maintain temperatures to provide reasonable comfort to employees consistent with industry-wide standards (see § 7.11), requires employers to pay for any uniforms and equipment that they mandate (see § 7.12), requires employers to pay for routine employee business expenses (see § 7.13), imposes special reporting requirements for piece-rate pay (see § 7.14) creates special requirements for commission payments (see § 7.15), creates special rules for bonus payments (see § 7.16), disallows tip credits (see § 7.18), treats earned vacation pay as a form of deferred wage (see § 7.19), restricts some employers’ ability to schedule and staff employees as they chose (see §§ 7.22, 7.23), requires employer to issue periodic itemized wage statements (see § 16.3), and imposes potentially massive civil penalties for violations of wage and hour statutes (see § 7.25). Moreover, California often eschews the guidance provided by analogous federal labor law. The DLSE has stated: “we cannot use the analysis employed by the federal courts in establishing the obligations of California employers under the unique provisions of the California Industrial Welfare Commission wage orders.”3 The California Supreme Court has made similar pronouncements—dismissive of federal law whenever the high court can read California law to be more plaintiff-friendly (see § 7.3.5). To make matters still worse for employers, California courts decree that the California Labor Code, unlike the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, must be “liberally construed” to protect employees. (See § 7.5.) This rule of construction does not mean that “plaintiff always wins”; it just seems that way. The California Supreme Court did once say this: “A mandate to construe a statute liberally in light of its underlying remedial purpose does not mean that courts can impose on the statute a construction not reasonably supported by the statutory language.”4 Of course, that was not an employment case. 7.1 Requirements Imposed by IWC Wage Orders 7.1.1 Overview of Wage Orders The Industrial Welfare Commission, has issued 18 “Wage Orders” to cover a dozen broadly described industries and several occupations. Although the IWC no longer operates, the DLSE continues to enforce the Wage Orders. The Wage Orders remain in effect alongside the body of law enacted by the Legislature and are codified in the
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