New ways to get into hot water in California in 2016

It's a new year, and that means that there are new employment laws on the books everywhere. More specifically, companies operating in California continue be subject to all sorts of employee-friendly laws.  Hey, the state has to make money somehow!  And remember...ignorance is not a defense.  Rather than list out all of the new laws in California, we're going to give you a few ways that you can get into hot water in California in 2016.

1.  You run an e-commerce firm in San Jose and you've hired three fulfillment reps - Tim, David, and Jennifer - to manage order processing.  All three employees have the same job descriptions and are doing work that is "substantially similar."  You pay Tim and David $40k per year, and you pay Jennifer $35k per year.  This pay disparity is problematic due to California's Fair Pay Act.  Temperature of water:  Hot 

2. You own a blog and media startup Bakersfield, but you open up a small office in San Francisco.  In order to afford your rent in SF, you pay your part-time employees $10 per hour for every hour worked.   While you're meeting Federal minimum wage requirements, you're not paying them in accordance with San Francisco's local minimum wage of $15.25. You also fail to realize that due to AB970 the California Labor Commissioner can now enforce local minimum wage laws, in addition to the less-feared OLSE.  Temperature of water: Warm

3. You are the CEO of a professional services firm in Los Angeles.  Your company has been using E-Verify since 2014.  You have an HR Manager on staff and they use E-Verify as part of the hiring process. You are talking to a new candidate and you really like her.  You "want to know a little more" about the candidate and you have your HR Manager run the candidate's info that was included on their application through e-verify.  You didn't realize that this is now illegal. There is an electronic record of what has been done.  Be prepared to shell out up to $10,000 in penalties.  Temperature of water: Scalding. 

If you have a company or employees in California, try to avoid being like any of the companies above.  And if any of you feel inclined to take on "the law", I'd encourage you to listen to what The Clash has to say about fighting the law (along with who won).

Meet this computer, it's your new HR person

I often think about all of these new HR platforms and software programs being rolled out to small businesses.  These programs tout many amazing things like the fact that employers will be able to handle administration with a click of a button, or that insurance/payroll/hr can be automated to the point where you won't need someone in those roles.  I'm actually surprised that these systems don't say that they'll generate top-line revenue for your company (maybe some day they will).

Aside from administration being a total pain in the ass, I do believe that it serves a useful purpose.  Young folks entering into the HR field these days will gain valuable experience filling out forms and documents.  It's not the act of filling out documents, but understanding other crucial elements of "document completion" which includes:

1.  Why the documents are being filled out;
2.  Who requires the documents to be filled out:
2.  Where can I take shortcuts and where can I definitely not take shortcuts;
3.  What happens if the documents aren't filled out the right way;
4.  What are the consequences of an incorrectly filled out form;
5.  What happens in those weird, one-off instances where the system doesn't know what to do;
6.  When an employee signs something and I sign something, what does that really mean?

Here's an example. I used to handle HR administration back in the days of Third Eye Blind and Crystal Pepsi, and one of the things that I did was complete an I9 and go over it with employees.  I knew I9's inside and out, so well in fact that I went to a training session put on by an HR executive and an immigration attorney and left feeling like I could teach class to other HR folks.  It was incredibly informative, but it was put on by a lawyer, and we all know how I feel about lawyers.  I learned a lot of great information at that session. I learned potential pitfalls, what to do in strange circumstances, and even the intricacies of collecting identification documents. I know. I was a nerd.

Fast forward to today, where many companies are using HRIS platforms, benefit systems, and online document completion.  I was talking to friend of mine who owns a small engineering firm about how they complete I9's and he just replied with "The system does it."  The hair on the back of my neck stood up a little, but I didn't bristle.  I then asked how the system handled remote employees.  The response again was "I just click a box and the system handles the rest."   At this point I didn't argue (although I thought about sending him in the direction of the closest Immigration Attorney) but told him to be careful in case he ever has an I9 audit.

I'm not saying that companies need to hire a person just to handle I9's. And I'm also not saying that they shouldn't use I9 software or automation. What I am saying is that anyone signing an I9 should be aware of the proper way to complete the document. They should also be aware of the consequences for not completing an I9 correctly.  Most of the individuals signing I9's don't even realize that they're signing them under the penalty of perjury.  And if things go badly, and a Notice of Inspection hits your mailbox, you better be sure that "The system handles my I9's" is not going to be looked at with any sympathy.