What goes up continues to go up!  As we pointed out here last year, the trend of increasing the minimum wage continues, as follows:

State:

On January 1, 2024, the California state minimum wage will increase from $15.50 per hour to $16.00 for employers of all sizes, reflecting a 3.5% increase, which is based on the expected rate of inflation.  The state minimum wage also governs the exempt employee threshold salary, which will increase accordingly.  The new minimum salary for employees who otherwise qualify to be exempt from overtime will be $66,560 annually for employers of all sizes.

On September 1, 2023, the California legislature passed Assembly Bill (“AB”) 418, the California Food Safety Act.

If the law is passed, then any person or entity will be prohibited from manufacturing or selling a food product for human consumption containing specified food additives. The banned additives include brominated vegetable oil (CAS no. 8016-94-2); potassium bromate (CAS no. 7758-01-2); propylparaben (CAS no. 94-13-3); and red dye 3 (CAS no. 16423-68-0).  The original version of the bill included a fifth additive, titanium dioxide. However, shortly before the ...

On September 11, 2023, industry, government, and union representatives announced that they had reached a deal to remove a California referendum on the Fast Food Accountability and Standards (“FAST”) Recovery Act from the 2024 ballot. The Fast Act has a storied history, commencing with legislation which was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2023, which prompted a responsive referendum and legal action.    

The compromise bill, Assembly Bill (“AB”) 1228 will increase the minimum wage for fast food workers in the state to $20 an hour in April 2024 if the fast food chain has more ...

Q: In a receivership I just wrapped up, the court approved my final account and report and awarded me final fees. Because there were insufficient funds in estate to pay my fees in full, the court ordered the defendant to pay my outstanding approved fees. The defendant, however, has not paid me. Am I entitled to interest on my outstanding fees even though I don’t have a judgment?

A: Actually, you do have a judgment and you are entitled to interest on your unpaid fees. As explained in a prior Ask the Receiver, “judgment” is defined differently in different sections of the Code of Civil ...

On August 15, 2023, a panel of judges for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit revived a class action lawsuit against Nestle regarding its “Premier White Morsels” Toll House product.  In the opinion, Prescott v. Nestle USA, No. 22-15706, the court vacated the district court’s ruling and asked the court to reconsider its decision in light of the California Court of Appeal’s decision in Salazar v. Walmart, Inc., 83 Cal. App 5^th 561 (2022).

Plaintiffs alleged that Nestle violated California state law, including the Unfair Competition Law (“UCL” ...

Companies reporting liability insurance claims need to be aware that the pertinent rules vary depending on whether a policy is “claims made and reported” or “occurrence”.

Most, if not all, Directors and Officers and Errors and Omissions policies are written on a claims made and reported basis. By contrast, Commercial General Insurance, or CGL insurance, is written on an occurrence basis. Under a claims made and reported policy, a claim must have arisen and been reported during the same policy period. By contrast, under an occurrence policy, the claim may be reported long ...

With the stated purpose of providing protection to freelance workers who may struggle to receive timely and full payment for their services, the city of Los Angeles has established an ordinance which will require hiring entities to have a written contract with any freelance worker for services valued at $600 or more in a calendar year.  Titled the “Freelance Worker Protections Ordinance”, the legislation establishes specific rights and remedies for freelance workers which could prove costly to uninformed employers. 

As defined by the ordinance, a “hiring entity” is any ...

On August 9, 2023, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) announced a direct final rule revoking certain uses of partially hydrogenated oils (“PHOs”) in food.  The rule will go into effect on December 22, 2023. Any comments to the rule must be submitted by October 23, 2023.

The rule removes PHOs as an optional ingredient in the standards of identity for peanut butter and canned tuna. It also revises FDA's regulations affirming food substances as generally recognized as safe pertaining to menhaden oil and rapeseed oil to no longer include partially hydrogenated forms of these ...

On August 14, 2023, a panel of judges for the United State Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a published opinion affirming dismissal of two complaints alleging that food product labels advertising the amount of protein in products were false and misleading under federal and state law. The panel held that the claims were preempted by FDA regulations.

In Case No. 22-15377, the panel ruled on two related cases, Nacarino v. Kashi, and Brown v. Kellogg. The plaintiffs in both cases argued that the protein claim on Kashi and Kellogg’s labels were false because the nitrogen method ...

On July 21, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court order denying Domino Pizza’s motion to compel arbitration in a putative class action brought by plaintiff Dominos truck drivers who alleged that Domino’s had violated California labor law.

The decision in Carmona v. Domino’s Pizza, No. 21-55009 involved an analysis of the Federal Arbitration Act. A Ninth Circuit panel had previously affirmed the denial of the motion to compel, but the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari, vacated the panel’s decision and remanded ...