Your Employer Doesn't Own You

There is often a certain arrogance that comes with being an employer. The majority, while maintaining needed control over their product and business, respect their employees as individuals, with certain legal and moral rights and deserving of respect as human beings. However, an employer who views his employees as pawns can easily become controlling, robbing his employees of their due under California law, including California labor law breaks.



Little wonder that California has more stringent labor laws than most states. California needs them, given the sought-after climate that attracts an influx of both migrant workers and those who have grown tired of northern winters. Sadly, employers who subscribe to the view that the California climate is a perk exchangeable for the withholding of pay are not only cruel and misguided; they are flaunting California overtime law.



Workers need to realize that while having a job is a privilege, it does not give the employer the right to enslave. Employers do not own the lives of their workers, or have any right to control their activities as a puppeteer may pull the strings of a puppet beyond California wage and hour laws.



But some do. To them, an employee is little more than pawns who can be bullied into not claiming overtime, or kicking back wages to the employer. Workers are shortchanged on their wages, coerced into working longer hours as part of their regular day, or prevented from taking meal and coffee breaks. Even pack mules are allowed to rest. But some employers don't even allow that courtesy.



To that end, California labor law breaks exist to ensure an employee's health is protected, together with the quality of the product she may be charged with producing. A tired, under-nourished employee is a recipe for costly mistakes—errors that can affect the employee's job, the employee's health, or a consumer purchasing the product.



Any hours worked beyond the standard work day qualify for overtime under California overtime law, with the possible exception of those jobs deemed exempt from overtime pay. Here again, however—keep your eyes open, and make sure that your exemption is legitimate, and not merely a fabrication designed to save the employer some money.



In the end, California wage and hour laws are there to protect the worker from being exploited unjustly. Sadly, too many workers are intimidated into thinking there is no way out. But there is—and the first step is to consult a qualified attorney.