California’s wage and hour landscape can feel like a minefield of lawsuits waiting to happen, especially for contractors juggling mobile crews, changing job sites, and complex pay rules. In our recent webinar, BusyBusy teamed up with California compliance experts Jeff Russell (CEO, CalComply) and Alex Medina (co-founder, CalComply; partner at employment law firm Medina McKelvey) to unpack what’s driving insane seven-figure settlements and the practical steps contractors can take right now to protect their businesses.
The Stakes: Why Wage & Hour Is California’s #1 Legal Risk
- PAGA is the big threat. California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) allows one current or former employee and a lawyer to pursue penalties on behalf of all employees. (This is usually not covered by traditional insurance.)
- Perfection is the standard. True wage and hour compliance requires absolute perfection. A single 29-minute lunch, a late break, or a penny-off overtime rate can cause insanely high cost penalties, not to mention you as the business owner have to pay both sides’ legal fees.
- Real-world fallout:
- A regional HVAC and solar installer with about 200 employees settled for $2.3M.
- A GC settled for $620K in 2020, an amount that would likely be higher today due to inflation and rising settlement values.
Bottom line: No contractor is too small to be targeted. If you have hourly employees, you are at risk.
Why Construction Gets Hit Hard
- Multiple wage orders, prevailing wage, and alternative workweek schedules create complexity.
- Crews move from site to site, which makes contemporaneous timekeeping and break enforcement tougher.
- Add-on claims are trending: heat illness, workplace violence plans, potable water, and suitable seating often appear in PAGA pleadings.
The Penalty Stack: How a “Small” Miss Becomes a Big Number
Consider one 29-minute lunch:
- PAGA penalty for the short meal period
- Meal-period premium (one hour at the regular rate of pay)
- Inaccurate wage statement because that premium was not paid
- Waiting time penalties up to 30 days if the final pay is wrong
Multiply that across a dozen or more employees and pay periods and you can quickly reach six or seven figures.
New PAGA Creates an Opportunity: Up to 85% Penalty Reduction
Reforms now reward employers who treat wage and hour like health and safety. If you take “reasonable steps,” you can qualify for up to an 85% reduction in PAGA penalties. Those steps include:
- Audit your policies, practices, and payroll data
- Fix what is non-compliant, both policy and practice
- Train, test, and certify supervisors and employees, then refresh regularly
- Re-audit at least annually with counsel to preserve privilege
BusyBusy + CalComply: A Layered Defense
Think of compliance as an anchor in California’s chaos. Tools plus training create traction.
How BusyBusy Helps
- Interactive daily attestations at clock-out.
- Employees answer Yes or No and explain extra details to questions and statements like “I certify that I did not worked off the clock,” “I certify that I took my required rest breaks,” “I certify that I took my required meal periods” and “Is my time correct?”
- Incorrect and/or “No” answers ask employees to explain their answer and trigger immediate alerts so managers can correct issues the same day, creating evidence that you monitor and enforce.
- Real-time timekeeping (in, out to lunch, in from lunch, out for the day) with digital weekly sign-offs.
- California overtime rules supported, with options for prevailing wage.
- Proactive lunch reminders near the five-hour mark.
- Built-in Safety Module: toolbox talks, observations, incident reports (Cal/OSHA ready), inspections, JSAs/JHAs, all stored in the cloud for audit readiness.
How CalComply Helps
- California-specific wage and hour training for managers and field employees.
- Testing and certification to reinforce habits and document “reasonable steps.”
- Data that is frequently used in mediations to reduce exposure and demonstrate a culture of compliance.
Together: BusyBusy’s data trail plus CalComply creates credible, repeatable proof that you authorize, permit, monitor, and enforce breaks, and that you pay premiums when required.
Your Takeaway Playbook
- Ditch paper and memory-based timecards. Use contemporaneous, four-punch digital timekeeping.
- Treat rest breaks and meal periods like safety. Daily interactive attestations, immediate follow-up, and pay the premium when due.
- Harden your payroll math. Regular-rate calculations for overtime and premiums must be correct.
- Educate everyone. California-specific, role-based training with testing and certification, renewed on a cadence.
- Create an audit rhythm. Annual legal audits plus ongoing spot checks of time, pay, and attestations.
Turn Compliance Chaos into Clarity
BusyBusy and CalComply were built to work together: reliable data plus provable training. That helps California contractors reduce risk, bid with confidence, and keep crews focused on the work, not lawsuits.
Wanna learn more about how BusyBusy can help? Click HERE to schedule a time to chat with us.
Wanna learn more about how Cal Comply can help? Click HERE to schedule a time to chat with the Cal Comply team.
