Ignore These at Your Company’s Peril – Wage and Hour Laws
This professional course explores Wage and Hour laws, their impact on employers, strategies for compliance, and their relevance in today’s workplace.
Each year, California employers pay multi-million-dollar damages awards for violations of Wage and Hour Laws, which are easily violated by unwary employers and easily prosecuted by employee attorneys (often in class actions). We’ll start with an overview of the most frequent Wage and Hour claims, why they are settling for millions of dollars, and how employers and HR teams can ensure compliance with these overlooked and misunderstood laws. After reviewing many of the key W&H Laws, we’ll look at how the California courts (especially the California Supreme Court) often lean toward protecting workers at the expense of their employers. We’ll end the course by discussing a question that triggers many different viewpoints: How relevant are these Wage and Hour laws, which first appeared in the early 1900’s, to today’s workplace?
Program Details
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Location & Session Dates
2026 Session Dates:
- Thursday, May 28
- Monday, June 1
- Thursday, June 4
- Monday, June 8
- Monday, June 15
- Monday, June 22
Session Time: 6:00p-8:00p PST
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Course Format
All sessions will be held live online via Zoom.
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Course Sessions
Session 1: Overview
- What are Wage and Hour (W&H) laws?
- The history of these laws
- The four categories comprising California’s W&H laws
- The many sources of W&H laws: Federal law (FLSA) and the Department of Labor opinions; California Wage Orders and the Labor Code; and interpretations of these laws by the enforcing agency
Session 2: Why are these W&H cases settling for so many millions of dollars?
- The most frequent W&H claims
- Can an employee sue in court for violations of any W&H law?
- Looking at one of the most recent and significant W&H cases: Naranjo v. Spectrum Security Services, Inc.
- The accretive effect of California’s “Pay Stub Law” and “Waiting Time Law”
Session 3: The FLSA: Federal W&H laws
- How and why are federal laws applicable to California employees?
- What are the key areas they cover?
- What happens if there is a conflict between federal and California law? Isn’t federal law supposed to be “supreme”?
Session 4: Wage Orders – the birth of California’s comprehensive W&H legal system
- What are the 17 Wage Orders and what do they pertain to?
- How can employers figure out which Wage Order applies to their enterprise?
- How can employees figure out what Wage Order applies to their jobs?
- Taking a closer look at a few Wage Orders and their key provisions
Session 5: Exempt vs. non-exempt employees
- What is the significance of distinction?
- What are the primary exempt categories?
- How does one determine whether a certain position is exempt or non-exempt?
Session 6: Minimum Wage
- Who decides the minimum wage an employee earns per hour? The feds, the state, the city?
- "Thou shall not fool around with calculating minimum wage" – so says the California Supreme Court in Peabody v. Time Warner Cable
- Can an employee agree to work for less than the minimum wage?
- What happens if an employer pays less than the applicable minimum wage?
- Example of complexity of seemingly simple W&H laws: Tipping and the minimum wage
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Course Instructor
Ireneo A. Reus III, J.D.
Lecturer in Law
Managing Attorney, Reus Law FirmIreneo A. Reus III is a Lecturer in Law at UCLA School of Law and serves as outside general counsel to businesses and employers in various industries, including healthcare, media, and real estate. Reus is also an accomplished legal community leader, a published thought leader, and sought-after public speaker. He has held leadership positions at the State Bar of California, California Lawyers Association, American Bar Association, and the Philippine American Bar Association. Reus has served as a contributing author for the Continuing Education for the Bar (“CEB”) “Practitioner” series on multiple employment law topics. He has also served as a contributing author in the ABA's best-selling book, Careers in International Law, (5th Edition), and the 2012 “State Bar of California’s Guide to Growing and Managing a Law Office.” Reus is a member of ABA House of Delegates and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. -
Certificates and MCLE
Certificate of Completion
Participants who complete all required course elements will receive a certificate of completion from UCLA Law Executive Education.
MCLE
UCLA School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider. This session has requested MCLE credit for 12 hours and is currently pending approval.
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Tuition & Discounts
Pathways to HR Director Students: Included in tuition
General Tuition: $1,400
10% discount for:
- Government or Non-Profit Employee
- UCLA Law Alumni and Previous paid Executive Education participants
- Partner Organization Members
- Non-Lawyers
*For all discount rates, please email execed@law.ucla.edu for the relevant instructions to access your tuition category.