Kornman00
April 9th, 2009, 12:17 PM
Thought you all may find this interesting. While this law went into effect last October, I don't remember any talk of it nor did any tech talk threads get returned when I searched for "california".
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2009/04/simpsons_crunchtime.jpg
(http://www.joystiq.com/2009/04/06/california-law-may-exempt-game-programmers-from-receiving-overti/)
Do you work in California? Do you program games? Do you make over $75K a year? Well, it may be time to seek employment in another state, friend. As of today, California Assembly Bill 10 (http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0001-0050/ab_10_bill_20080930_chaptered.html) has gone into effect and means the future of game development in California for some may be marred by brutal crunch times with no compensation for overtime hours.
Amending the existing overtime laws and clarifying exemptions barring certain employees from receiving overtime under various conditions, AB 10 seeks to lower the number of lawsuits taking place in the state under previous guidelines. Joystiq's Law of the Game (http://www.joystiq.com/tag/law-of-the-game/) author Mark Methenitis (http://www.joystiq.com/bloggers/mark-methenitis/) explained the downside of the amendment to us this afternoon, saying, "Practically speaking, that means if you're a dev with a salary of $75K, you can't claim overtime during crunch, which means the developer is more likely to use crunch cycles."
Game developers looking to leave the state may want to inquire with 2K Boston Irrational Boston (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/04/01/take-two-files-trademark-for-irrational-boston/comments/18031560/) -- we hear the company's hiring (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/20/2k-boston-is-hiring-hey-ken-we-have-excellent-compuper-skills/)!
[Update: Please pardon the confusion, dear readers. To clarify: California Assembly Bill 10, did, in fact, go into effect during October 2008. We have not -- as some emails have suggested -- become trapped in a time warp, perpetually repeating the day every store in town was inexplicably out of napkins and dill pickles.]
[Via superannuation (http://supererogatory.tumblr.com/post/93023640/item-number-4-is-now-clarified-to-exempt-computer)]
Aaaaaaand you can hear the sound of EA Executives creaming their pants. It's great to see who the government is actually representing here. So...you want to cut down on law suits, huh? How about....encouraging the companies to treat their employees fairly by imposing laws that will protect the worker and not the businesses that are either breaking the law or using loop holes to mis treat their employees to their benefit.
Snaf, I'm not relocating to Cali. Find some place in WA 8).
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2009/04/simpsons_crunchtime.jpg
(http://www.joystiq.com/2009/04/06/california-law-may-exempt-game-programmers-from-receiving-overti/)
Do you work in California? Do you program games? Do you make over $75K a year? Well, it may be time to seek employment in another state, friend. As of today, California Assembly Bill 10 (http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0001-0050/ab_10_bill_20080930_chaptered.html) has gone into effect and means the future of game development in California for some may be marred by brutal crunch times with no compensation for overtime hours.
Amending the existing overtime laws and clarifying exemptions barring certain employees from receiving overtime under various conditions, AB 10 seeks to lower the number of lawsuits taking place in the state under previous guidelines. Joystiq's Law of the Game (http://www.joystiq.com/tag/law-of-the-game/) author Mark Methenitis (http://www.joystiq.com/bloggers/mark-methenitis/) explained the downside of the amendment to us this afternoon, saying, "Practically speaking, that means if you're a dev with a salary of $75K, you can't claim overtime during crunch, which means the developer is more likely to use crunch cycles."
Game developers looking to leave the state may want to inquire with 2K Boston Irrational Boston (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/04/01/take-two-files-trademark-for-irrational-boston/comments/18031560/) -- we hear the company's hiring (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/20/2k-boston-is-hiring-hey-ken-we-have-excellent-compuper-skills/)!
[Update: Please pardon the confusion, dear readers. To clarify: California Assembly Bill 10, did, in fact, go into effect during October 2008. We have not -- as some emails have suggested -- become trapped in a time warp, perpetually repeating the day every store in town was inexplicably out of napkins and dill pickles.]
[Via superannuation (http://supererogatory.tumblr.com/post/93023640/item-number-4-is-now-clarified-to-exempt-computer)]
Aaaaaaand you can hear the sound of EA Executives creaming their pants. It's great to see who the government is actually representing here. So...you want to cut down on law suits, huh? How about....encouraging the companies to treat their employees fairly by imposing laws that will protect the worker and not the businesses that are either breaking the law or using loop holes to mis treat their employees to their benefit.
Snaf, I'm not relocating to Cali. Find some place in WA 8).