What Is COVID-19 Hazard Pay?

The COVID-19 pandemic motivated many employers to provide extra wages, often referred to as “hazard pay,” to employees who continued to work throughout the pandemic, despite the threats created by the virus, particularly pre-vaccine. Hazard pay is provided both to incentivize employees to work in potentially hazardous conditions and to compensate those individuals for the additional risks they assume.

Continue Reading COVID-19 Hazard Pay and Overtime Violations

In February 2022, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California denied defendant park operators’ motion to dismiss in part, finding that plaintiffs adequately pleaded joint defender liability along with their claims for meal and rest break violations, but granted without leave to amend plaintiffs’ claims for minimum and overtime wages and inaccurate wage statements. Plaintiffs’ second amended complaint alleges, among other things, that the “spread-out structure” of defendants’ facilities and the “practice of understaffing these facilities” impeded plaintiffs from taking rest breaks, that defendants did not schedule sufficient employees to relieve nonexempt employees during their meal and rest breaks, and that plaintiffs “often” worked overtime hours, but were not paid for all overtime hours worked.
Continue Reading Eastern District of California Finds Joint Employer Liability Sufficiently Alleged and Permits Meal and Rest Break Claims to Proceed