Delaying Payment for New Employees' Hours Spent in Training

[AccessChange]

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: California

Hello,

We are a startup fitness & nutrition coaching facility and are in the process of hiring personal trainers. Unlike the overwhelming majority of health clubs, each of our new hires shall undergo a ten-week in-house introductory course. We shall be focusing on all aspects of personal training and we want to make sure all of our employees are on the same page and showing a unified front.

There shall be no cost reflected upon the new hire for this course, and we shall be paying minimum wage for all course training hours (roughly 30 hours in total). The catch is that we shall be investing a great deal of time and effort in each of our new hires, and we want to incentivise our new hires to remain motivated and complete the course (and not waste our time). With that in mind, we would like to have one lump sum payout for all the course training hours at upon the end of their coursework.

So, we have a few questions we'd greatly appreciate your thoughts on: firstly, is it legal to have a payout of this manner? Would this be considered "retroactive" pay or "back-pay" (we're thinking back-pay)? Can we make their payout conditional upon their completion of the course (meaning, if they don't finish their training, can we withhold their pay--something we're not sure we're comfortable with even if it were legal; but it would be a definite incentive to complete)? Lastly, we've done quite a bit of research, and can't find any examples of clauses we may base our employee contract upon; any potential resources for such of which you're aware?

Thank you!!!

[BooRennie]

What did your accountant say when you asked them your questions?

[L-1]

Section 204 of the California Labor Code requires that employees be paid twice each month. Withholding pay for ten weeks would run afoul of that requirement.

Take a look at http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/lawstimem...ymentwages.pdf

It should provide much of the information you are looking for.

[AccessChange]

What did your accountant say when you asked them your questions?

Actually, that is GREAT point. We are reaching out to our accountant as we speak. Thank you!

- - - Updated - - -

Section 204 of the California Labor Code requires that employees be paid twice each month. Withholding pay for ten weeks would run afoul of that requirement.

Take a look at http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/lawstimem...ymentwages.pdf

It should provide much of the information you are looking for.

That is a phenomenal link. We are reading through it right now. Fingers crossed. Thank you!!