MODEL BILLS

Wage Theft Prohibition Models

The National Employment Law Project has a comprehensive booklet providing a wide variety of wage theft laws, available HERE.

Here are just a few of the models from that booklet:

Model Legislation Providing for Daily Overtime Based on California law at Cal. Labor Code § 510(a) Eight hours of labor constitutes a day’s work.

Any work in excess of eight hours in one workday and any work in excess of 40 hours in any one workweek and the first eight hours worked on the seventh day of work in any one workweek shall be compensated at the rate of no less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for an employee. Any work in excess of 12 hours in one day shall be compensated at the rate of no less than twice the regular rate of pay for an employee. In addition, any work in excess of eight hours on any seventh day of a workweek shall be compensated at the rate of no less than twice the regular rate of pay of an employee. Nothing in this section requires an employer to combine more than one rate of overtime compensation in order to calculate the amount to be paid to an employee for any hour of overtime work.

Model Legislation Providing for Meal Periods Based on California law at Cal. Labor Code § 512

An employer may not employ an employee for a work period of more than five hours per day without providing the employee with a meal period of not less than 30 minutes except that if the total work period per day of the employee is no more than six hours, the meal period may be waived by mutual consent of both the employer and employee. An employer may not employ an employee for a work period of more than 10 hours per day without providing the employee with a second meal period of not less than 30 minutes, except that if the total hours worked Is no more than 12 hours, the second meal period may be waived by mutual consent of the employer and the employee only if the first meal period was not waived.

Model Legislation Providing for Rest Breaks Based on California law at 8 CCR § 11050(12)

Every employer shall authorize and permit all employees to take rest periods, which insofar as practicable shall be in the middle of each work period. The authorized rest period time shall be based on the total hours worked daily at the rate of ten (minutes) net rest time per four (4) hours or major fraction thereof. However, a rest period need not be authorized for employees whose total daily work time is less than three and one-half (31/2) hours. Authorized rest period time shall be counted, as hours worked, for which there shall be no deduction from wages.

Model Legislation Providing for Penalty for Violations Based on California law at Cal. Labor Code § 226.7(b)

If an employer fails to provide an employee a meal period or rest period in accordance with an applicable order of the Industrial Welfare Commission, the employer shall pay the employee one additional hour of pay at the employee’s regular rate of compensation for each work day that the meal or rest period is not provided.