A new bill introduced in the California State Legislature would allow the state's labor commissioner to award liquidated damages in minimum wage disputes, relief that currently can only be handed out by courts.  The bill, introduced Thursday by Democratic Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, is designed to help minimum wage workers obtain the same relief through the state's labor commissioner as they'd get at court. Hiring an attorney is expensive, making the labor commissioner a more feasible route for workers to adjudicate their claims, explained Luis Quinonez, Bonilla's chief of staff.

Liquidated damages serve to deter employers from paying workers less than minimum wage, Quinonez said. As the law is written now, courts can award liquidated damages in an amount equal to the wages, with interest, that have been unlawfully withheld. Courts can decline to award liquidated damages if the employer acted in good faith.  The commissioner is chief of the state's Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, which has the authority to resolve disputes in which an employee alleges he or she is not getting minimum wage. Workers likely to benefit from the bill are employed in the service industries, Quinonez said. (click on link to read full story)