On June 2, 2009, the Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Diego decided Starbucks can legally require its low-wage hourly coffee baristas to share tips with supervisors who also wait on customers. The appeals court reversed a $106 million award against Starbucks, which currently has over 1,300 locations throughout California.
The lawsuit was filed in 2004, alleging Starbucks of violating California state law that declares tips to be the property of employees and denies a share to a company’s owners or managers. The lower court judge, Patricia Cowett, ruled last year that shift supervisors were company agents and equivalent to managers. Thus, Starbucks must repay the baristas for (more…)
This article discusses general aspects of community property in California. The principles set forth below, however, can be changed by a premarital agreement. A premarital agreement is commonly referred to as a prenup or prenuptial agreement, and is often used by spouses to determine property rights during marriage and upon divorce.
All property acquired by married persons while domiciled in California is classified as either community property or separate property. Generally the California marital property system is based on the principle that the husband and wife contribute equally to the accumulation of wealth during a marriage regardless of their respective salaries or income. In the absence of a premarital agreement (aka prenuptial agreement), all property acquired during marriage by the labor of either the husband or wife is community property that is (more…)
After someone is arrested there are several steps before they have a criminal record or go to jail.
1. The Arrest:
The police arrest someone based on probable cause that the person has committed a criminal offense.
2. Filing the Complaint:
The police provide reports and evidence to the prosecuting attorney (district attorney, city attorney, U.S. Attorney, etc.). The police do not file charges. The prosecuting attorney then decides whether or not charges should be filed . If they determine charges should be filed, then it is the prosecuting attorney who decides which charges will be filed. The prosecuting attorney files the "Complaint" with the court, which sets forth the allegations against a criminal defendant.
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California Employment Laws are generally employee friendly. A prime example of this is the 2007 case Murphy v. Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. , where the California Supreme Court set forth the general principle that "statutes governing conditions of employment are to be construed broadly in favor of protecting employees" and applied that standard to missed meal and rest breaks .
Labor Code section 226.7 requires employers to pay an employee an additional hour of pay for a missed meal or rest break . This additional pay was determined by the Court to be "wages" or "premium pay" rather than a "penalty." The simple fact that the extra pay was not called a "penalty" was not enough to sway the Court in their analysis. Instead, what is important is whether the monetary recovery provided for in Labor Code section 226.7 is proportionate to the injury.
The Labor Code provides that if an employee receives an extra hour of pay for a missed or interrupted ten (10) minute break or thirty (30) minute meal period. Thus, the question is why is an employee entitled to a full hour of pay for the 10 or 30 minute missed break. In light of construing statutes in favor of employees, the California Supreme Court held that Labor Code section 226.7 is proportional to the injury because it compensates for both economic and non-economic damages . This is similar to the premium pay for overtime.
The classification of the extra hour of pay as "wages" or "premium pay" is significant because a claim for the payment of wages is subject to a three year statute of limitation. Following the Murphy case, a virtual flood of meal period cases have been filed in California.
Contact the Law Offices of Amanda Hill at (310) 860-7445 for information regarding your employment law matters.
Court of Appeals Allows Starbucks Supervisors to Take From the Tip Jar 
