Overtime Pay FAQ

California law requires employers to pay employees overtime wages when they work:

1. More than eight hours in a workday
2. Over 40 hours in a workweek
3. More than six days consecutively in the same workweek

The California Labor Code establishes a workday as 12 am to 12 pm each day. However, employers can define a workday using a different consecutive 24-hour period, as long as such a change is not done just to purposefully circumvent overtime provisions. Workweeks are any seven consecutive days that start with the same calendar day.

Yes, under Labor Code Section 511, alternative workweek schedules are allowed when they are agreed upon by employees. As such, alternative schedules may require an employee to work more than eight hours within a 24-hour period without overtime pay for that particular timeframe.

The most common alternative workweek schedules are the 4/10 - where employees work four 10-hour days in a workweek; and the 9/80 - where employees work 80 hours in nine days over two workweeks. Alternative workweek schedules can be due to business needs as well as employee preferences. If you are unsure whether your schedule, and related wages, are appropriate for your job, a knowledgeable overtime pay attorney in Orange County can help you make sure your rights are being respected.

Yes, alternative workweek schedules are not to be used as a method to avoid paying employees overtime pay they are due. An alternative workweek cannot consist of shifts longer than 10 hours per day within a 40-hour workweek without payment for overtime.

Where an employee works over the 10-hour a day limit, they are entitled to an overtime rate of at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours between 10 and 12. If any hours are worked over 12, employees are entitled to twice their regular pay.

Employees are also entitled to twice their regular rate for work hours that exceed the 40 hours a week. An experienced Orange County employment law attorney at the Serendib Law Firm can assist you in determining what rates you are owed for the hours you’ve worked.

Only certain administrative, executive, or professional jobs are exempt from California overtime law. An exemption generally applies to employees who earn a monthly salary that is equivalent to twice the California minimum wage and whose work is primarily intellectual, managerial, or creative, requiring some sort of discretion and independent judgment.

Employees who were not properly paid for overtime work are entitled to those unpaid overtime wages. An employee is also entitled to 10 percent interest on those wages, starting from the date they were due and continuing until the date of judgment. The 10 percent interest rate is standard, but can differ depending on circumstances. In addition to the overtime compensation, an employee may be entitled to other derivative Labor Code violations including but not limited to incompliant paystubs and wages not paid upon separation.