Category Archives: People issues

California companies can have specific salary arrangements with salaried employees

Many startups try to control payroll costs by, among other things, classifying all employees as salaried employees “exempt” from state and federal overtime laws.  In doing so, they seek to make payroll predictable and avoid the additional, and often unplanned, expense of paying overtime for hours worked in excess of 8 in a day and…

Independent Contractor or Employee: Getting It Right Is More Important Now Than Ever Before

In a prior post, we took a look at some of the top mistakes growing companies make in the employment arena. Now let’s take a deeper dive into the issue of misclassifying people as employees vs. independent contractors. It’s an issue that is frequently glossed over by startups, but one that can cause significant risks,…

Advice on Advisor Option Grants

I recently had a detailed discussion with a client about common terms for option grants for advisors. Advisors are typically business or technical people that lend their time and expertise to a company in exchange for equity. This client asked me for the most typical terms for options, so I thought I’d share a couple…