First off I apologize, I'm sure me terminology is off. I'm trying to determine if what is happening to my friend is illegal. She is a salaried employee working in California for a theater that puts on plays and musical productions. She recently had to take sick time and the week after had taken a week off due to a death in the family. On returning she was told that she would be docked pay because they had to hire someone to man her position while she was away. They have also informed her that the plays she was required to preform in she will no longer be getting paid for, even though she had signed a contract stating that she would be required to preform and would be paid a stipend for said performance. She does the work because she loves theater but she is barely paid minimum wage for 40 hours and puts in 80 or more a week, is there any part of this that is outside the law? I know the business was in trouble recently for not paying it's interns the required minimum wages they are provided by law and I'd not be surprised if they are trying to short my friend illegally. Thanks for any advice you have.

You have several different issues here.
- A lawyer in CA is going to have to read the actual contract to see if there are any actionable issues. I can say that absent the contract, not paying the employee for not working is probably legal, and terminating the employee is probably legal. The contract may change, or may not change that.
- I have never had to research theater related work and I have no idea if there are any special legal handling associated with this work (and there might be). All employees who are Non-Exempt must be paid overtime. I would normally put in an "assuming the employer is covered by the federal FLSA law" disclaimer, but CA has its own laws, and even if the employer was not covered by FLSA, CA overtime rules would still apply. The big question is whether or not there is some specific theater exception to OT (anything is possible). My advice on this second point only is to file a wage claim with CA-DLSE for any unpaid overtime worked but not paid. It costs nothing to the employee to file the claim. They might win, or might not win, but there is no downside to the employee to filing the claim.

Federal law (FLSA) allows acting to be exempt (Professional exemption, under the creative part). http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/fs17d_professional.htm

However, the minimum salary for this is $455 a week under federal law.

If the salary requirement was met, the time off for the death in the family would be personal time and not required to be paid by the company.

For a non-exempt employee, none of the absences need to be paid.

ScottB: Federal law (FLSA) allows acting to be exempt (Professional exemption, under the creative part). However, the minimum salary for this is $455 a week under federal law.

For Californians, the minimum salary would be $600/week.

However, the minimum salary for this is $455 a week under federal law.

$600/week in CA (goes to $640/week in 2008). CA required that Exempt Salaried employees be paid twice CA minimum wage, and the OP states that the employee was barely making minimum wage for 40 hours.

On inquiring I guess she got bumped up to $600 a week a month ago... sounds like someone else was looking up the laws. My question then is can they dock her and pay her under the minimum for a pay period that she took sick time off and then the same when she had to take time off for a funeral?

This gets more complicated. The federal rules are the FLSA regulation 29 CFR 541.602 (see below). Under those rules:
- Complete day absences due to illness can be docked if a "bona fide" sick pay plan exists. That is generally taken by federal DOL as one that provides at least 5 paid sick days per year. No bona fide plan means that the docking cannot occur.
- Voluntary complete day absences, which legally includes funeral or bereavement absence can legally be docked.

http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_541/29CFR541.602.htm

Yay another update... Evidently I was mistaken about being mistaken. she was given a small raise BUT she had requested to be raised to the federal minimum and the board rejected her request so they are still paying her about 540 for every two weeks. They claim they can do so because they are a non-profit, is there any truth to this at all? oh and she gets only 5 sick days a year, is this also legal? Sorry to not have my facts straight :(

Now the question is what is the best course of action to take to make sure that if she demands her wages she won't get terminated or discriminated against. The board that runs the theatre claimed that if they gave everyone legal wages they would bankrupt the business but I don't see how that gives them the right to keep people in poverty.

she gets only 5 sick days a year, is this also legal?

There is no law requiring sick leave, so, yes, five days a year is not only legal, it exceeds the requirements of the law.

I do not know how a company, for profit or non-profit (the latter describes us sometimes :D ) can dodge the laws about overtime and minimum wage aside from some specific jobs mentioned in federal law (and maybe state law).

They claim they can do so because they are a non-profit, is there any truth to this at all?


No. There may or may not be some type of "theater" exception that I have never heard of. There are all sorts of strange industry specific exception. But there is no non-profit exception per se. It is quite possible that a theater is not covered by the federal FLSA law at all (less then $500K in annual sales and no interstate commerce). However CA has it's own rules and as far as I know (possible in error) CA considers most CA employers not covered by FLSA to be covered by CA OT laws. You might want to give CA-DLSE a call to verify that. I have never worked for an employer not covered by FLSA and have never had a reason to hard research the CA OT coverage provisions.

Yay Now the question is what is the best course of action to take to make sure that if she demands her wages she won't get terminated or discriminated against. The board that runs the theatre claimed that if they gave everyone legal wages they would bankrupt the business but I don't see how that gives them the right to keep people in poverty.

Hard to say. If a wage claim is filed with CA-DLSE, then additional recourse is given if a termination occurs because the wage claim is filed. [Public Policy exception to Employment-At-Will that is supported by CA). If the employee just talks to the employer however, the employer can legally terminate the employee at that point.

There are no sure things. Having "recourse" does not mean that the employee will not get terminated - just that there is a fairly obvious claim that can be filed for. Some employees hold off filing wage claims until they otherwise terminate for unrelated issues.