Kristian G. AndersenGeverifieerd account

/7 Importantly, in addition to receiving the minimum wage, employees are also entitled to receive overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours / week. https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_Overtime.htm …

/8 These changes, however, means that postdocs (and other people in similar jobs) - who often work more - would need to "clock in" (and, of course, be entitled to overtime pay), which is something most institutions can't/won't administer.

/10 Overall, these changes means that IF (and this is an important if) the law remains as is AND institutions continue to consider postdocs exempt from overtime pay, THEN postdoc salaries in California should increase significantly.

/11 Overall, this is fantastic news - postdocs pay isn't even close to matching the increasing cost of living in e.g. California - especially if they have dependents.

/12 There are many potential issues though, so it'll be interesting to see how this is dealt with in the coming years - the main issue being that PIs rely on postdocs that need to be paid by grants, and for the past many years, grants have not increased.

/13 Another interesting question is whether this change to California law will spread across the country - e.g. if postdocs are paid $62k in California, will postdoc still only be paid, say, $50k in New York? California is a big state and could influence the rest of the country!

BTW, NY has the same provision with regard to exempt employees. It's a little more complicated because minimum wage isn't rising uniformly across the state (will hit $15 on 12/31/18 in NYC, on 12/31/19 downstate & at some point later upstate).