Cal-Peculiarities: How California Employment Law is Different 2022 Edition

242 | 2022 Cal-Peculiarities ©2022 Seyfarth Shaw LLP  www.seyfarth.com 7.17 Hazard Pay During the Covid-19 pandemic, California grocery, drug store, and other front-line workers sold essential products, stocked shelves, cleaned buildings, and otherwise kept the economy moving. Dozens of California cities and counties took action—often in haphazard ways—to provide these workers with premium pay, commonly called “hazard pay” or “hero pay.” But no politicians asked taxpayers to fund this effort. Rather, local governments imposed on local businesses a mandate to pay workers—sometimes immediately and sometimes even retroactively—hourly wage hikes of $3, $4, or $5. The state of California, meanwhile, took no supervisory role, declining to preempt these local initiatives that confronted larger employers with a patchwork of inconsistent obligations. The California Grocers Association launched legal challenges to the hazard pay ordinances, arguing that they violated the affected employers’ right to equal protection and that they were preempted by the National Labor Relations Act. By March 29, 2021, dozens of local jurisdictions had adopted hazard pay ordinances, requiring additional wages ranging from $3 to $5, effective as of the dates shown: Alameda (City) ( eff. 5/6/21) ($5) Alhambra ( eff. 5/12/21) ($5) American Canyon (eff. 3/25/21) ($5) Buena Park (eff. 4/8/21) ($4) Berkeley ( eff. 2/23/21) ($4) Coachella (eff. 3/26/21) ($4) Costa Mesa (eff. 3/16/21) ($4) Daly City ( eff. 3/28/21) ($5) El Monte (eff. 4/15/21) ($4) Irvine (eff. 3/25/21) ($4) Los Angeles (City) (eff. 3/8/21) ($5) Los Angeles County (eff. 2/23/21) ($5) Long Beach (eff. 1/19/21) ($4) Millbrae ( eff. 3/9/21) ($5) Montebello ( eff. 1/27/21) ($4) Oakland (eff. 2/2/21) ($5) Pomona (eff. 3/2/21) ($4) San Francisco ( eff. 3/22/21) ($5)