202 | 2024 Cal-Peculiarities ©2024 Seyfarth Shaw LLP www.seyfarth.com County’s Chief Executive Officer began determining the adjusted rates of the minimum wage based on the Consumer Price Index, which shall take effect on July 1 of that year.37 This practice will continue each year thereafter.38 Oakland. Under Measure FF, passed in 2014, the minimum wage rises with cost-of-living increases. The minimum wage from January 1, 2021 to January 1, 2022 was $15.06.39 On January 1, 2023, the minimum wage was raised to $15.97 under Measure FF for non-hotel employees.40 On January 1, 2024, the minimum wage was raised to $16.50 under Measure FF for non-hotel employees. Under Oakland’s Measure Z (section 5.93), starting January 1, 2023, the hotel minimum wage increased from $16.38 to $17.37 per hour with health benefits, and from $21.84 to $23.15 per hour without health benefits.41 On January 1, 2024, the hotel minimum wage increased to $17.94 per hour with health benefits, and to $23.91 per hour without health benefits. Palo Alto. Palo Alto raised the minimum wage to $15.00 in January 2019 and $15.65 in January 2021.42 Effective January 1, 2022, the minimum wage rate for the City of Palo Alto was increased to $16.45.43 On January 1, 2023, the minimum wage rate for the City of Palo Alto was increased to $17.25.44 On January 1, 2024, the minimum wage rate for the City of Palo Alto was increased to $17.80. Richmond. The minimum wage was $15.54 since January 2022 and increased to $16.17 on January 1, 2023.45 On January 1, 2024, the minimum wage rate increased to $17.20. San Diego. The minimum wage was $15.00 since January 1, 2022 and increased to $16.30 on January 1, 2023.46 On January 1, 2024, the minimum wage rate increased to $16.85. San Jose. The minimum wage was $16.20 since January 2022 and increased to $17.00 on January 1, 2023.47 On January 1, 2024, the minimum wage rate increased to $17.55. Santa Monica. The Santa Monica ordinance generally tracks the minimum wage requirements of Los Angeles County.48 The minimum wage reached $15.00 as of July 2021.49 Starting on July 1, 2022, the minimum wage was increased to $15.96 per hour.50 It increases by the annual Consumer Price Index thereafter, which Santa Monica posts annually on or near January 1.51 The minimum wage was raised to $16.90 on July 1, 2023. The minimum wage beginning on July 1, 2024 is $17.27. The wage for hotels and businesses operating on hotel property matches the City of Los Angeles Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Rate; Santa Monica will post new rates annually on or near May 15.52 7.3 Pay For Hours Worked 7.3.1 Statutory right to recover contractual pay Federal law empowers employees to sue employers for statutorily guaranteed minimum and overtime wages, but not for employer failures to pay higher, contractually promised, wages. In California it’s different. California employees can sue under the Labor Code to recover wages required by either statute or contract.53 7.3.2 California counts as hours worked any time subject to the employer’s control The “hours worked” concept is central to both federal and California law. But the California concept is broader, requiring employers to pay wages where federal law does not. Federal law considers time worked if it is spent predominantly for the employer’s benefit, as opposed to the employee’s benefit. California is different in two significant respects. First, California defines “hours worked” as “the time during which an employee is subject to the control of an employer, and includes all the time the employee is suffered or permitted to work, whether or not required to do so.”54 California law thus applies a broader definition of “hours worked” than the FLSA does.55 Second, while the federal Portal-to-Portal Act specifies that employers need not pay for “walking, riding, or traveling to and from the actual place of performance of the
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