Grinberg: Welcome to 2023

Wednesday, January 4, 2023 | 0

We made it, and here we are. I know we all had some doubts. What better way to start another wonderful year of blogging than by giving a heads-up on the laws that took effect on Jan. 1?

Gregory Grinberg

First off, a chronic favorite here at WCDefenseCA: minimum wage. Starting Jan. 1, the minimum wage goes up to $15.50 per hour for all employers, possibly more by local ordinance. What does that mean for you? 

If you’re paying TD for an employee who was earning minimum wage at the time of injury, the employee’s “earning capacity” has now increased by operation of the minimum wage law, which means you should be prepared to reassess the TD rate.

Second, everyone’s favorite abomination of a law: SB 1127 is now in effect for all dates of injury. What does that mean?

If you had 90 days to investigate a claim, you might have 75 now, depending on the nature of the injury alleged and the occupation claimed. No one knows how this will play out, as the law was so poorly drafted and reasoned out. Furthermore, you might think yourself safe if you’re not employing peace officers or firefighters or corrections officers.  But what about COVID-19 presumption cases, such as outbreaks or health care workers? Time to take a look carefully, because if workers’ compensation were a ship, our location on the map would read “here be dragons.”

If you’re looking at the costs of litigation, SB 1127 is in uncharted territory with the prospect of $50,000 in penalties. A dragon to face is not an unreasonable analogy.

Other notables include AB 257, which allows the government to raise wages for food workers up to $22 per hour, and of course, SB 1162, which requires employers with more than 15 workers to disclose wage ranges for a given position to prospective and current employees.

What does that mean for us? It means that California employers are going to have an even harder time keeping the lights on. Those of us who have not left the state are going to be very busy working to make sure the shifting of more and more of society’s burdens on employers is kept to a minimum. 

Cheer up. At least we won’t be bored.

Gregory Grinberg is managing partner of Gale, Sutow & Associates’ S.F. Bay South office and a certified specialist in workers’ compensation law. This post is reprinted with permission from Grinberg’s WCDefenseCA blog.