Contra Costa County

Contra Costa County is located towards the northern part of the East Bay in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. It’s part of the San Francisco—Oakland—Berkeley, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Among the largest employers in the county are BART, Richmond Bio-Rad Laboratories, Hercules Broadspectrum Americas, Richmond C&H Sugar, Crockett Chevron, John Muir Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente, La Raza Market, Los Mendanos College, Martinez Arts, Martinez, Nordstrom, San Ramon Santa Fe Pacific Pipe Lines, Richmond Shell Oil Products, Martinez Sutter Delta Medical Center, and Antioch U.S. Veterans Medical Center. Whether you are worried about disputes related to minimum wage, overtime, discrimination, harassment, retaliation or whistleblowing, call the seasoned Contra Costa County employment lawyers of Calderone Law Firm a call. Our principal Vincent Calderone has many years of experience litigating these matters.

Workers should be paid fairly. State, federal, and local laws spell out rights related to minimum wage, overtime, meal and rest breaks, and other matters linked to compensation. The federally mandated minimum wage as of 2024 is $7.25 per hour. However, the California minimum wage is much higher at $16 per hour, and this is the minimum wage that your employer must pay you if you’re a nonexempt employee. Sometimes it’s anticipated that the damages in an individual wage and hour lawsuit will be too small to make a lawsuit worthwhile. For example, if you are an hourly worker who was asked to work off the clock a handful of times, the amount of wage theft would be relatively small. In those types of cases, several employees who have received the same treatment may be able to gather together and bring a class action against the employer. It’s crucial to seek seasoned counsel to represent the class.

Job discrimination occurs when an employer takes a negative action against an employee because of a trait protected under federal, state, or local laws. Negative employment actions that may count as actionable discrimination include failure to hire, firing, failure to promote, demotion, and disparate pay, so long as these actions are taken because of an employee’s protected trait, whether that be race, color, disability, national origin or sex. The California Fair Employment Housing Act (FEHA) provides significant protection of workers and specifies a broad range of traits that are protected. When our lawyers are able to establish that a business is liable for employment discrimination you faced, we may obtain damages on your behalf. These may include emotional distress, past and future wage loss, out of pocket costs, and, if your employer behaved egregiously, punitive damages.

California and federal whistleblower protection laws forbid your employer from retaliating against you if you report your suspicions that your employer violated laws, regulations, or public policy. You cannot be retaliated against as long as you reasonably believed there was a violation, even if it turns out there was no violation. Retaliatory acts could include unfair write-ups, failure to promote, demotion, threats to report you to immigration authorities, denial of access to professional development, denial of resources that would allow you to perform your job, and wrongful termination. Through a successful whistleblower retaliation lawsuit, our attorneys may be able to recover back pay, compensatory damages, and expungement of any adverse employment record that was part of the retaliation. In addition, it may be possible for us to get you reinstated to your job. However, there are many times when the relationship between an employee and employer becomes too broken for reinstatement to be a wise idea, and in those cases, monetary damages to cover that loss may be more appropriate.

The lawyer you select may have a tremendous impact on your employment law matter, whether it involves wage and hour, employment discrimination, or whistleblower retaliation. Call the trustworthy Contra Costa County lawyers of Calderone Law Firm to determine your legal options for relief. We are strong advocates for workers in need of sharp strategies and representation to obtain the best possible legal outcome to their case. Complete our online form or call us at (424) 348-8290 for a free initial consultation.