The Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA) welcomes today’s injunction delaying implementation of the Department of Labor Overtime Rule, which would have raised the overtime exemption threshold to $47,476 on December 1. The Department of Labor rule would have significantly impacted small businesses across California, increasing labor costs while limiting opportunities for employees, especially young graduates. […]

President Obama likes to say that Washington needs to give the American people a raise. The American people need a raise, alright, but the President needs to get it out of his head that Washington can wave a wand, declare more people will get overtime or higher pay, and people will have more money in their pockets. […]

We are deeply concerned with the passage of AB 1066 today and the devastating impacts this bill will have on our small, independent farmers and the workers they employ. This mandate does not consider the thousands of agricultural workers who will lose their jobs and the billions of dollars in lost crop production resulting from […]

Just like earlier this year, because of the enactment of SB 3 (Leno) in 2016, California’s minimum wage is going up again. On January 1, 2021, the state’s minimum wage will be increased for all sizes of businesses, including “small employers,” who will see their fourth wage hike in recent years. Under prior state law, […]

For 65 years, the California Supreme Court has taken a rigid line on pensions for public employees: Any retirement benefits promised to a worker at the outset of a job can only be reduced if they are replaced with something of equal value. That iron-clad precedent has been dubbed “the California Rule.” Today the state’s […]

Small businesses, of all economic sectors, have been hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. The most stricken industries – restaurants, hospitality, tourism, entertainment and personal services, and their supply chains – are disproportionately served by small businesses.  According to Homebase researchers, “While large corporations have largely been able to avoid mass layoffs, the same can’t […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom is leveraging the state’s $54.3 billion budget deficit. Give us what we want, he demands, or public safety programs will be cut. At the same time, he wants $20 million to enforce Assembly Bill 5, maybe the most damaging piece of legislation that ever became law in California. Appearing on CNN, Newsom […]

For California Supreme Court watchers, this all may sound strangely familiar: A public agency is being sued by its unionized employees for fiddling with their pensions and the state’s highest court is now preparing to weigh in. At stake in the case is more than a single squabble over retirement benefits, but one of the […]

Without criticizing the tremendous efforts that are already being made, here are some additional steps that California Governor Gavin Newsom could take to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Some of these recommendations may run counter to the political momentum of California’s one-party state, but perhaps in these extraordinary times, they should be considered […]

(This is the second in a series on the impacts of the coronavirus on employment and the workplace. The first is here.) In the old economy (three weeks ago), remote work was a growing but still limited part of the workforce. Only around 5.3% of American employees worked primarily from home in 2018. Within the past […]