New Laws in 2014: Piece Rate Workers and Computer Professionals

In my last blog we talked about the new minimum wage for the state of California and for the cities of San Francisco and San Jose.  Another ruling related to wages has to do with compensation for piece rate employees. If you employ piece rate workers, you must pay them at the piece rate for all piece rate work, and at a rate that is at least at the minimum wage for each hour of non-piece rate work. This means it’s not enough to average the piece rate and non-piece rate over total hours worked for the pay period and then make up the difference only where the total falls below the minimum wage.

Also, for 2014 the minimum annual salary required in California for a Computer Professional to be exempt from overtime pay is $84,130.53. This calculates to $40.38 per hour (up from the previous rate of $39.90) and $7,010.88 per month (up from $6,927.75). Besides meeting pay requirements, a stringent duties test must also be satisfied to meet the Computer Professional exemption.  For example, regardless of pay, the exemption does not apply to entry-level computer software professionals and employees who do not work independently without close supervision.

Recommendations:  The new piece rate laws require California employers to keep accurate time records.  This means accurate tracking is required on your part.  The Computer Professional guideline is a reminder to conduct a review of jobs that may be considered under the exemption.  Be sure to conduct the review under attorney-client privilege.