Additional New Hire Info Required For Nonexempt Private Sector Employees

On October 9, Gov. Brown signed AB 469, which among other things, adds §2810.5 to the California Labor Code. This law, effective January 1, 2012, includes a requirement that private employers provide their nonexempt employees a written notice with detailed wage information in their new hire materials.

Insurers may wish to alert policyholders about the new notice requirement, as the name, address and phone number of the employer’s workers’ compensation carrier must be included, and employers will need to prepare their notices in advance so they can be ready for new hire packets in January. The notice must include:

      • The rate or rates of pay and basis thereof, whether paid by the hour, shift, day, week, salary, piece, commission, or otherwise, including any rates for overtime, as applicable.

      • Allowances, if any, claimed as part of the minimum wage, including meal or lodging allowances.

      • The regular payday designated by the employer.

      • The employer’s name, including any "doing business as" names used by the employer.

      • The physical address of the employer’s main office or principal place of business, and a mailing address, if different.

      • The employer’s phone number.

      • The name, address, and phone number of the employer’s workers’ comp insurance carrier.

      • Any other information the Labor Commissioner deems material and necessary.

The new law also specifies that the employer must notify all nonexempt employees by written amendment, a new written notice, or a revised paycheck stub, within 7 calendar days if any of the required information changes. Therefore, any change of workers’ compensation insurer after January 1 will require a new notice. Please note: AB 469 does not affect the existing workers’ compensation new hire pamphlets required under LC §3551 (i.e., CWCI’s "Facts About Workers’ Compensation") or the workers’ comp posting notices required under LC §3550 (i.e., CWCI’s "If A Work Injury Occurs"), neither of which has been revised for 2012. The new notice is also in addition to the wage and hour information that the state already requires employers to keep posted in a location where it can be viewed by employees, and LC §2810.5 does not change any of those posting requirements. It also does not apply to public employees, employees who are exempt from overtime laws, or employees covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement if their regular rate of pay exceeds California’s minimum wage by at least 30 percent and if their overtime compensation is paid at the proper premium wage rate.

The Labor Commissioner is required to prepare a template of the new notice and make it available to employers, but it has not been issued yet. The template is expected to be posted soon on the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement and the Office of the Labor Commissioner website at http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse.