There are various state and federal laws in place in the state of California that were enacted to ensure that the rights and interests of workers are protected. These laws, and cases interpreting the laws, together make up the body of employment law. They serve as legal guidelines for the relationship between employers and their employees by outlining the rights and obligations of both parties.

One of the most important employment laws in California is the anti-discrimination law that ensures that employers in the state do not discriminate against their employees based on protected characteristics like race, religion, gender, age, or sexual orientation. The anti-discrimination laws ensure employers treat their employees fairly despite their origins or orientation. In the event an employee feels discriminated against, they can hire an attorney to file a claim on their behalf, first exhausting their administrative remedy through the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH).

Another important piece of employment law in California is derived from its Labor Code. If you wanted to exercise your right as an employee to overtime pay, this is the code you would look to. This law ensures that workers who are properly classified as non-exempt (and often times misclassified as exempt) receive overtime pay when they work more than eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week. Every hour worked overtime earns non-exempt (and improperly classified salaried exempt) employees one and a half times their regular hourly rate.

However, an employee’s union contracts and workweek schedule can affect their right to overtime. Also, the overtime rights are not applicable to workers properly classified as exempt employees or independent contractors.

The right to be protected from sexual harassment is another major employee right in California. According to the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), employers must ensure their employees aren’t placed in hostile working environments where inappropriate activities occur. Also, California as well as federal laws prohibit employers from making sexual demands or quid pro quos for job-related benefits.

Another key law that protects the rights of employees in California is the minimum wage law, also derived from the Labor Code. This law states that employers must pay their non-exempt workers at least the state minimum wage of $15.50 per hour. The minimum wage law also provides properly classified exempt workers with a minimum salary that’s at least double the state’s minimum hourly wage (for the year).

California State laws also give some employees the right to paid sick leave when they fall ill. According to the law, full-time workers have a right to take at least 24 hours, or 3 full workdays, of sick leave every year. In the event the employer adopts an accrual plan for paid sick leave, employees would accrue at least 1 hour of paid sick leave for each 30 hours of work. However, many employers provide their workers far better sick leave benefits.

According to California labor law, the right to a safe workplace is guaranteed to all employees in the state of California. This means that employers must periodically conduct inspections of their worksites to identify and remove hazardous situations or conditions that could place their workers in danger.
Workers who feel they are working in unsafe conditions may file a claim with the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA). Also, should an employee sustain an injury while working, they may file for workers’ compensation to cover their medical treatment.

Additionally, in California, employees have a right that ensures they are compensated for wrongful termination of employment. This right comes from state laws which prevent employers from firing their employees for various reasons, including filing a workers’ compensation claim, whistleblowing, and exercising their rights, as stated in the aforementioned bodies of law like California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and California Labor Code.

According to a June 2022 article published in Bloomberg Law, female law school graduates outnumber their male counterparts. However, the figures show that in 2020, women still lagged behind men in compensation. The same article reported that female law associates earned 91 percent of the pay of male associates, and female equity partners earned 85 percent of the pay of male equity partners. Pay equity, among other issues, is what the Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) — Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles (WLALA) Joint Task Force addressed in their Call to Action 2021 in May 2021.

The call to action aims to retain and advance women lawyers. Having more female graduates is more meaningful to the industry when the women stay in the profession and advance.

This need to help women advance is illustrated in the larger, more prestigious law firms where the percentage of women advancing is slow. Here, women not only lag in numbers but also in compensation. In 2003, only 16 percent of women were designated as any partner in large firms, and in 2005, 26 percent were non-equity partners. Moreover, in 2005, only over a quarter of the women were partners at firms with no ownership.

A May 2022 Bloomberg Law article reported that only 32 percent of women who responded to an American Law 200 survey of 75 law practices were non-equity partners, while 22 percent of women were equity partners. These figures indicate that women are advancing, but slowly.

Furthermore, male partner salaries continue to outpace female partners. According to the same May 2022 article, the more female attorneys advanced in the profession, the more the pay gap widened.

Some experts say that compensation systems, performance evaluations, and succession are a few reasons women are paid less than men. Women step away from work at big law firms because of unequal pay and lack of advancement. Additionally, the demanding workload is not suited to women planning to have children.

The LACBA-WLALA Joint Task Force Call to Action seeks to help women advance women in the law profession, institutionalize gender parity, and invest in training, mentorship, and professional development. Activities the partnership would like law firms to aim to employ 30 percent of women, LGBTQ+, and people of color to work within their firms in positions of governance roles, equity leader/partner promotions, and hiring senior lawyers.

The task force also wants the firms to be accountable for ensuring they aim for this percentage by gathering data on human resources practices. The call to action also asks participating law offices to consider implementing flexible work schedules and creating sponsorship programs. Finally, the task force encourages firms to increase the number of equity and non-equity partners by 25 percent within the next five years.

As of the May 2021 LACBA press release, the partnership had enlisted 16 law firms to participate in the initiative. The call to action is an opportunity for law firms in California to facilitate diversity by first doing it in their offices.

As an attorney litigating cases involving wage and hour violations, whistleblowing and other labor laws, Kimberly Olson Lind helps Long Beach, California clients receive compensation for multiple forms of damage they suffer from workplace civil rights violations. During her career, Kimberly Olson Lind has received recognition and many awards from her peers and the public.

Before graduating from law school, Kimberly Olson Lind earned praise for her academic research. While attending Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, California, she became the research assistant for professor and assistant dean Martin Pritikin, receiving research credit on the article, “Is Prison Increasing Crime?” published in the Wisconsin Law Review. She received her law degree, specializing in business law, and obtained a certificate in international law. She also received honors for her work on the Whittier Law Journal of Child and Family Advocacy.

Once she began her private practice in 2012, Kimberly Olson Lind became recognized for her work. For six consecutive years, she earned the Super Lawyers Rising Stars designation. Her cases have also received coverage in local newspapers like the Beachcomber. Most notably, the paper covered her time as an attorney representing, a whistleblower for the Citizens’ Police Complaint Commission (CPCC), who received over $730,000 in damages due to ongoing efforts by the Long Beach Police Department to conceal his investigations into racial profiling incidents.