Orange County Employment Lawyers Blog
According to a recent news article from CBS Local Los Angeles, workers at Disneyland Resort are organizing demonstrations to protest what they are calling unfairly low wages. This demonstration involves a protest outside of the resort and the presentment of a petition to the company CEO demanding higher wages for their hard work for the amusement park.
A representative for the workers said their petition contains over 117,000 signatures and it began circulating when United States Senator Bernie Sanders was in Anaheim to discuss the wage issue there and other wage issues across the nation. Higher wages for working Americans has been one of the main issues for Mr. Sanders during his bid for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination and he has continued his efforts on this front as a senator when he lost in primaries to Hillary Clinton.
In addition to the petition, and words from Mr. Sanders, the pay at the resort was brought to the forefront of local and national discourse when Occidental College and a partner agency released a report claiming that ten percent of workers there are homeless during at least some point of the course of their employment and more than 60 percent of their workers cannot afford to purchase enough food on which to live.
A group of labor unions representing the collective workers at the resort are seeking to get a measure on the ballot in the upcoming election that would require any employer seeking public subsidy money to pay their employees at least $15 per hour in 2019, and then increase in $1 per hour increments annually until the minimum wage reaches $18 an hour for these employees. This number was not chosen at random as research has found this is the actual minimum hourly wage a worker in this area can earn and survive given the high cost of living.
One worker who was interviewed as part of this story has said he was unable to afford a car and fix his roof, but had to choose a car because without it, he could not get to work and earn any money. This is clearly a choice in which nobody whats to find themselves.
As our Orange County employment lawyers can explain, regardless of what the legal minimum wage is, there are many employers who are refusing to provide their employees with pay for all hours for which they actually worked, and this includes not paying an employee for all of the overtime hours during which they worked in any given week. This is commonly known as a wage/hour dispute and can be a valid basis for filing a complaint against your employer with a government agency or a legal action in the appropriate court of law for that jurisdiction.
One of the most important things a worker can do who finds themselves in this situation is to speak with an experienced employment attorney as soon as possible to see if they have a valid claim. It is helpful to bring a copy of your work schedule and any other documentation you may have to your initial consultation to aid your prospective employment attorney in advising you as to whether you have a strong case.
Contact the employment attorneys at Nassiri Law Group, practicing in Orange County, Riverside and Los Angeles. Call 949.375.4734.
Additional Resources:
Workers To Protest At Disneyland Thursday Over Wage Demand, June 14, 2018, CBS Los Angeles
More Blog Entries:
New Protections for Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Employees Take Effect, Aug. 13, 2017, Orange County Employment Lawyers Blog