An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 6 – Wage And Hour Laws

Schools with 25 or fewer employees will have an extra year to raise their wages on a one-year deferral schedule and will reach the $15.00 per hour minimum wage by 2023. Schools must meet the California minimum wage requirement, which is more generous to employees than the federal minimum wage requirement. 1. L EARNERS Under California law, employees considered “Learners” can be paid 85% of minimum wage for the first 160 hours worked in the occupation if they have no previous similar or related experience. 565 2. M INORS Minors who are high school graduates or have received a certificate of proficiency must be paid the regular minimum wage. 566 The California Labor Code contains a variety of requirements for employment of minors under age 18 depending upon the nature of the work. See Section 11 below for more. 3. S PLIT S HIFT R EQUIREMENT A “split shift” is a work schedule where the employee’s work day is interrupted by non-paid non- working periods that are longer than bona fide rest or meal periods. 567 For example, school bus drivers and crossing guards often work a split shift before the school day in the morning and after the school day in the afternoon. If they do not work between these shifts, the school does not need to pay for the time they are not working, but the employees are entitled to an additional one hour of pay at minimum wage, unless the employee lives on the school premises. 568 However, if the employee’s total pay for the time worked in the day for all hours worked plus one extra hour exceeds the state minimum wage for all hours worked plus one additional hour, the school has satisfied the split shift pay requirement. In other words, if a crossing guard earns $32 for two hours worked in the morning, and another $32 for two hours worked in the afternoon, the crossing guard is not entitled to any additional pay for working a split shift, because the total pay for that day exceeds the minimum wage for four hours of work plus one extra hour. 569 C. L OCAL M INIMUM W AGE R EQUIREMENTS Several cities and counties throughout California have adopted local ordinances which impose a higher minimum wage on employees within these areas. Schools located in cities or counties with higher local minimum wage requirements must make sure employees earn an hourly wage that meets the local requirements. While the local minimum wage requirements affect an employee’s hourly wage, they do not affect the salary basis test for exempt employees. An exempt employee must continue to earn a monthly salary equivalent to no less than two times the California minimum wage for full-time employment, even if employed in a municipality with a higher local minimum wage.

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 165