The Employment Landscape is Messy: How Restaurants Can Ensure Compliance with Limited Resources

Let’s start with an uncontroversial premise: California’s complex, ever-changing gauntlet of employment laws is difficult for any company to navigate. Yet you may still be wondering why, aside from the headache, does it matter for my restaurant?  If you’re fortunate enough not to have been on the receiving end of a civil or administrative complaint from an employee or a government employment agency, you may not realize just how deep the downside risk can be in employment disputes or just how high the stakes are for non-compliance. Best case?  Either a quick, nuisance-value settlement (typically up to $15,000), or years-long litigation that will cost you at least $100,000 (and often much more) – which you will never get back even if you win – to prove you’re right.

The public health crisis and swift economic downturn caused by COVID-19, of course, have compounded the complexity of operating a restaurant and complying with the myriad and evolving federal, state, and…