New job and business creation should be the top priority of the State Legislature with a record-high California unemployment rate. New legislation that I recently introduced will help accomplish this goal by reforming key sections of the California State Labor Code that have been problematic for many small business owners.
I have taken part in a number of job-loss hearings over the past year ? and more than one business owner has personally told me that the high cost of complying with a myriad of confusing regulations is one of the key reasons why so many businesses have failed ? or moved out of state.
SB 1267 seeks to reform several sections of the Labor Code that have proven to be a source of frustration for small business owners because of how they have been interpreted by overzealous regulators. These sections have resulted in numerous and steep fines for family-owned businesses ? even if business owners were often unaware they were not in compliance.
I have numerous examples from both inside and outside of my district where business owners were fined thousands of dollars by labor regulators due to interpretation of codes that would literally require a lawyer to translate.
One documented case involves a store owner who was fined $2,000 for allowing a 16-year-old to work a four hour shift after school. He wasn”t aware of the regulations that state teenagers can only work a maximum of three hours after school.
Another case involves a small store owner who left his mother in charge of the store while he left to pick up supplies. He was fined $1,000 because of state regulations that required the purchase of worker”s compensation insurance for his mother, even though his mother wasn”t technically an employee.
Still another story involves the owner of a Mexican restaurant who innocently allowed her 12-year-old daughter to take “to go” orders over the telephone when she came by after school and was doing her homework. Fine: $1,000. She didn”t know a special permit was required to allow her daughter to work in the restaurant.
It is the job of these labor regulators to inform and educate small business owners about the regulations they are required to follow. Instead, these bully bureaucrats often arrive unannounced and hand out fines like a grandfather hands out candy to grandchildren. This isn”t business-friendly behavior. We could do a lot more by educating business owners about the law, rather than sticking them up at gunpoint.
The revisions that I am seeking would still require small business owners to comply with the State Labor code. There is a good reason as to why they are in the codes to begin with. But the key provision of my legislation is to give mom-and-pop business operations time to comply with state law if they are found to be out of compliance, without the threat of crippling fines.
Many business owners who have already left California indicated to me that it wasn”t the high rate of taxation that forced them out. It”s the myriad of complex and confusing regulations that proved to be the biggest source of frustration. My legislation offers common sense reform. We can do this.
Senator Sam Aanestad represents the 4th Senate District.
