Title: 30% over minimum wage law
I work as a paramedic for an ambulance company in the coastal area of California. The employees are also part of a bargaining unit that has well over 100 employees. We have just come to a Tentative Agreement but shortly found out that EMT’s that are being paid minimum wage are also getting a 30% increase (which bring their wage up to $14.30 an hour which also a base pay for a paramedic) before the agreement is even voted on.
It seems like the company and bargaining unit. Did not know anything about this 30% law. Which everyone is trying to figure out what and how this is. You have an employee that has zero experience on an ambulance take a semester class and get a job as an EMT getting paid the same an hour as an employee that has at least a years experience as an EMT plus goes to Paramedic school for over a year and has a base wage as a starting EMT now.
How does this work? Some coworkers are also saying that some employees are due back pay from the year 2000 because of this law. We have 3 shifts that an empkoyee can work, a 24 hour shift ( EMT and Paramedic starting at $14.30 and hour, when the tentative agreement says EMT start at $11), and day 12 hour shift ( EMT makes $14.30 and Paramedic makes $17.95 and tentative agreement says EMT will start at $13.81) and last the 12 night shift ( EMT makes $16.32 and Paramedic makes $21.22).
Can you help me understand why these two shifts EMT’s can make the $14.30 an hour with this 30% above minimum wage law?
Hi Gorge,
EMTs and paramedics are subject to Wage Order No. 4. (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8, § 11040.) This Wage Order was last amended in 2002. I think the subdivision you’re referencing is 3(I).
A simplified version of that subdivision is that certain types of employees are exempt from overtime rules if they are part of a collective bargaining agreement and the agreement meets certain minimum requirements.
Among those requirements, the collective bargaining agreement must:
- Expressly provides for the wages, hours of work, and working conditions of the employees;
- Expressly provide for premium wage rates for all overtime hours worked; and
- Pay for those employees not less than 30 percent more than the state minimum wage.
If each of these requirements are met, then the employees subject to that agreement might be exempt from California’s normal overtime rules.
But if any requirements are not met, the employer must pay their employees a regular overtime rate. California’s law on overtime wages is explained in more detail here: Overtime Wage Laws in California, Explained.
Importantly, there no legal requirement that employers or unions participate in the exemption provided in subdivision 3(I). Meaning, an employer and a union could decide to pay employees less than 30% more than the minimum wage and just follow regular overtime rules.
If your new union agreement requires all employees subject to it to be paid at least 30% more than the state minimum wage, it is possible that they are amending the agreement with this overtime exemption in mind. It is also possible that your previous agreement did not address this overtime exemption, in which case you would have been entitled to premium overtime pay at a normal rate (unless you were subject to a different exemption).
Either way, there would be no way for me to know with any certainty without first reviewing both the old and the new collective bargaining agreements. I would probably also need to review your past pay stubs. Those tasks, however, fall outside the scope of what would be appropriate in this kind of public forum.
Anyway, I hope this information helps. Please remember that this information does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied on. Nor does it create an attorney-client relationship.
I wish you the best of luck in your situation!