We will have more to say as soon as we have had time to digest this information. In the meantime, here is the link:
New Piece-Rate Legislation (AB 1513)
We recommend all customers start studying the FAQ to learn about the new requirements, which go into effect January 1, 2016. A few initial impressions after a quick read through:
It’s not clear whether the new rules take effect with any checks issued on or after 1/1/16 or if they apply to labor on or after 1/1/6. Just in case, if you normally date your checks on Friday or Saturday, you may want to consider dating checks on Thursday, December 31st, to insure you have an extra week to come into compliance.
The law does not require tracking time for rest breaks, only paying for these breaks that are compensable. Given this, we may be able to develop rules to define compensable breaks based on total hours worked. If this feature is added, customers that are currently tracking breaks on their crew sheets or through in the field data collection system may be able to stop doing this.
Employees that are paid on both an hourly basis and a piecework basis in the same week will need to have all of their break time paid using the same calculation, even the breaks taken on days when the employee is paid only on an hourly basis. This is an interesting wrinkle, to say the least.
What this means is if an employee is paid on a piecework basis the first day then paid on an hourly basis for ten hours of work on the second day in the workweek, you cannot pay the employee 10 hours at their hourly rate on the second day. It will be necessary to subtract the compensable breaks from the 10 hours worked (e.g. two ten minute breaks = .3333), and pay the employee for 9.6667 hours at their regular hourly rate and the break time at the calculated rest and recovery rate.
If an employee is paid only on an hourly basis during the workweek, then the legislation does not apply because the employee is not a piecework employee. In this case, break time is included in the total hours paid.