BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1342|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 1342
Author: Mendoza (D)
Amended: 4/12/16
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 6-0, 4/26/16
AYES: Jackson, Anderson, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning, Wieckowski
NO VOTE RECORDED: Moorlach
SUBJECT: Wages: investigations: subpoenas
SOURCE: Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
DIGEST: This bill specifies that a legislative body of a city
or county is authorized to delegate that body's authority to
issue subpoenas to a county or city official or department head
and may report noncompliance thereof to the judge of the
superior court of the county in order to enforce local wage
laws. This bill also makes related legislative findings.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Divides the state into cities and counties, and requires that
the Legislature provide for the powers of cities and counties.
(Cal. Const., art. XI, Secs. 1 and 2.)
2)Authorizes counties and cities to adopt a charter for their
own governance, independent of the Legislative scheme. (Cal.
Const., art. XI, Secs. 3-6.)
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3)Provides for the general powers of counties and specifies that
a board of supervisors may do and perform all other acts and
things required by law, or which are necessary to the full
discharge of the duties of the legislative authority of the
county government. (Gov. Code Sec. 25200 et seq. and Gov. Code
Sec. 25207.)
4)Authorizes the board of supervisors of any county to establish
the office of the county hearing officer, and provides that
the duties of the office are to conduct hearings for the
county or any board, agency, commission, or committee of the
county. (Gov. Code Sec. 27720.)
5)Provides that when a law or ordinance requires that a hearing
be held or that findings of fact or conclusions of law be made
by any county board, agency, commission, or committee, the
county hearing officer may be authorized, by ordinance or
resolution, to: 1) conduct the hearing; 2) to issue subpoenas;
3) to receive evidence; 4) to administer oaths; 5) to rule
on questions of law and the admissibility of evidence; and 6)
to prepare a record of the proceedings. (Gov. Code Sec.
27721.)
6)Provides for the general powers of cities including the
ability to pass ordinances not in conflict with the
Constitution or laws of the state, and specifies that the
legislative body may issue subpoenas requiring attendance of
witnesses or production of books or other documents for
evidence or testimony in any action or proceeding pending
before it. (Gov. Code Secs. 37100 et seq., 37104.)
7)Authorizes that, in addition to other powers, a city may
perform all acts necessary or proper to carry out its powers.
(Gov. Code Sec. 37112.)
This bill:
1)Specifies that, in order to enforce local wage laws, a
legislative body of a city or county may delegate to a county
or city official or department head its authority to issue
subpoenas and to report noncompliance thereof to the judge of
the superior court of the county.
2)Provides that the Legislature finds and declares that the
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provision above, does not constitute a change in, but is
declaratory of, existing law.
3)Makes various Legislative findings and declarations including:
statistics related to wage theft;
clarifying that the authority to delegate to local officials
the ability to issue subpoenas exists under current law; and
encouraging cities and counties to develop and enact specific
measures to target and remedy wage theft.
Background
Across the country, with California leading the way, cities and
counties are passing their own minimum wage laws, often with
significantly higher wages than currently exist at the state and
federal level. In 2014, San Francisco voters overwhelmingly
approved a ballot measure to gradually raise the city's minimum
wage to $15 an hour by 2018. Last year the Los Angeles City
Council voted to establish a city minimum wage that will reach
$15 an hour by 2021, followed soon thereafter by a measure by
Los Angeles County. San Jose adopted a city minimum wage in 2012
and smaller cities have recently done the same, including
Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, Sunnyvale, Emeryville, Mountain
View, Santa Clara, and San Diego. Last month the Legislature,
ensuring that California maintains the highest minimum wage in
the country, approved a plan to raise the minimum wage of the
entire state to $15 per hour over the next six years.
However, delivering on the promise of higher wages rests largely
on the ability of cities, counties, and the state to put
enforcement systems in place and fight the wage theft that
low-wage workers often experience. Wage theft, generally, is
when workers are not paid the wages to which they are legally
entitled. This can occur when workers receive payment at a rate
below the legal hourly minimum, when employees are not paid for
off-the-clock work, are not properly paid overtime, or fail to
get required rest and meal breaks, among other violations.
Significant and extensive minimum wage violations have been
documented around the country and in cities throughout
California, as described by a recent report:
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Significant and extensive minimum wage violations have
been documented around the country and in cities
throughout California. An analysis of worker surveys
conducted by the Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics
estimates that in California, minimum wage violations
occur in any given week in 11 to 12 percent of all the
low-wage jobs in the state (Eastern Research Group
2014). While this estimate already represents a
significant amount of wage theft, experience suggests
that official government surveys undercount workers who
are especially vulnerable to wage theft, such as those
working off the books or who are undocumented.
Other estimates come from surveys that use alternative
sampling strategies much more likely to capture the
full range of workers in the low-wage labor market. The
best such study to date is a large representative
survey of low-wage workers in Los Angeles in 2008,
which found that 30 percent had been paid below the
minimum wage during the previous week and 88 percent
had at least one pay-related violation in the previous
week. The amount of underpayment due to minimum wage
violations assuming a full-year work schedule averaged
$1,135 a year per worker, or 6.9 percent of earnings.
Counting all pay-based violations, such as unpaid
overtime and off-the-clock work, workers lost $2,070
per year, or 12.5 percent of earnings. Violations
occurred across industries and occupations, with
above-average rates of minimum wage violations in
garment manufacturing, domestic service, building
services, and department stores. (Bernhardt, Dietz, and
Koonse, Enforcing City Minimum Wage Laws in California:
Best Practices and City-State Partnerships, UCLA Center
for Labor Research and Education and UC Berkeley Center
for Labor Research and Education, Oct. 2015.)
Recovery of stolen wages requires that the employee either find
a private lawyer to sue the employer, or more commonly, file a
complaint with a government agency charged with enforcement of
labor violations. However, because low-wage workers have limited
access to private attorneys, private actions have failed to
address wage theft on a large scale. This is largely because the
relatively low value of the average complaint dramatically
reduces profit for private attorneys, even when taking 40
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percent of the recovery. In addition, the difficulty private
attorneys face when collecting from employers jeopardizes their
ability to recover their attorneys' fees and earn anything for
their effort. Thus, public enforcement plays a central role in
ensuring that workers receive the wages they are owed. This
bill, sponsored by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors,
seeks to ensure that cities and counties have the tools
necessary to enforce wage laws by clarifying that cities and
counties have the ability to delegate the authority to issue
subpoenas to a county or city official or department head.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified4/28/16)
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (source)
OPPOSITION: (Verified4/28/16)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: The Los Angeles County Board of
Supervisors writes in support:
SB 1342 would clarify current law which allows county boards
of supervisors or the legislative body of a city to delegate
its administrative subpoena powers to a county department
head or city official to investigate allegations of wage
theft.
Wage theft occurs when a worker has performed work for his or
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her employer, but has not been paid for that work. This
includes unpaid wages and overtime, minimum wage violations,
and off-the-clock work. Wage theft is a statewide problem,
and is prevalent among immigrant and low-wage workers. When
employees are not paid for the work that they have duly
performed for their employers, it not only hurts them, but
their families who depend upon them for their support.
Further, when workers are not paid, it not only jeopardizes
their housing, but also their health as underpaid workers
often forgo medical care and will work while sick to
compensate for lost wages.
Prepared by:Nichole Rapier / JUD. / (916) 651-4113
4/29/16 12:39:25
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