California rules regarding overtime pay favor employees more than even federal regulations on the same. The rules indicate the how overtime pay is to be calculated, and the type employees who are entitled to payment for the extra hours worked.
What California Overtime Rules Say 

Overtime pay in California is primarily calculated based on the number of hours worked each day. Nearly all nonexempt employees in California’s private sector and who are not under the collective bargaining agreements are covered by this rule. When determining overtime pay, the weekly totals are also taken into account.

Overtime calculations should be done in an orderly manner. The first step involves finding out the hours that are to be paid as overtime. After that, you then decide whether to pay one and a half times or double for hours. After that, you can then find what ‘regular’ rate ‘ pay to use in calculating the pay for the extra hours.

What is Regular Rate Pay?

Regular rate is used to refer to the actual rate of pay to an employee after considering all hourly earning and any compensations the employee is entitled to; it does not just mean an employee’s hourly amount of pay. The regular rate is used when calculating overtime pay for California employees and includes almost any form of pay an employee receives.

Weekly Overtime Pay

When determining weekly overtime pay, only the hours worked at straight-time are considered. It prevents what could be termed as a ‘ pyramiding’ of the overtime, where employees received overtime pay for already paid overtime.
What About Nonexempt Employees Who are on Salary?

A salaried nonexempt employee is entitled to overtime pay according to California overtime rules. The employee must receive pay for all hours worked, which must include payments for daily and weekly overtime. The fact that a nonexempt employee is on a salary does not in any way relieve you of the obligation to pay them for the extra hours they work.
Exceptions For Payment of Overtime

Specific industries are exempted from certain rules of calculating overtime, as contained in the Wage Orders. While there are no rules allowing employees refuse to work overtime hours in California, company policies or union contracts on the issue could be used to effect such, allowing an employee not to work extra hours.

There are limits, though, regarding the number of hours you may require your employees to be at work, as stated out in the Wage Orders. As an employer, you would need to acquaint yourself with these rules and exceptions to avoid lawsuits regarding payment of overtime.

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Overtime can be determined as the time employees work in excess of the average working hours of 8 hour day and 40 hour workweek as defined by California law. Over the past years, most of the employers in California have exploited their employees by making them work past the regular working hours. They had taken advantage of using them without overtime payment pay since there were no laws to protect the employee’s rights.

This went on until groups of employees came together and pressed for the change in laws through unionizing, lawsuits, and lobbying. The multiple pronged efforts from employees who believed they deserved better helped change the payment landscape in California and even in federal law over the course of many years.

Non-Exempt Employees

California overtime work laws involve sets of rules that force employers to pay their non-exempt employees for overtime work. This overtime consists of working past stipulated daily regular hours or average weekly hours. The non-exempt employees who qualify for the overtime pay must meet some set requirements for their eligibility to be proven.

Eligible Employees

According to the rules an eligible employee should be over 18 years of age and should not be employed in any of these offices or companies; executive, administrative, as professional workers, or working in a computer software field. The laws also include a person who was legally permitted to leave school and work when they are over 16 years of age.

The current minimum wage for an employee is $10 per hour for regular hours. The overtime pay according to Californian laws should be twice the standard pay for regular working hours. To answer the question of how much should be the for overtime work in California, the following breakdown is the best answer: employees working past the typical eight working hours daily and those working over 40 hours in the average workweek should be Paid 1.5 times the minimum wage for regular hours.

Double Pay Overtime Requirements

Moreover, the employees who work for over twelve hours in a day should be spent twice the average hourly salary. Finally, twice the daily wage is also applied to those employees who work for over 8 hours for the day for seven days consecutively.

The current status of employees in California depicts the work of the laws in that the rules have helped them a lot regarding their rights. Although these laws have been seen to be so helpful, it is quite unfortunate that some employers take advantage of employees’ ignorance and not respect the rules.

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The California rules for exceptions and overtime are more advantageous to personnel than the equivalent federal laws. It is essential to follow the rules and regulations of overtime payments in order to avoid penalties.

Common Error 

Failure to not pay needed overtime work hours, premiums to employees.

Essential Requirements for California Overtime

For just about all nonexempt private industry California employees that aren’t shielded by the collective bargaining rights, the overtime pay in California, is actually based largely on the selection of work hours in one day. Nevertheless, you should additionally account that California overtime is calculated in weekly totals.

Overtime Calculation in Calculation

Probably the trickiest component of payroll administration is actually the computation of overtime. You ought to utilize a step-by-step method. It is important to determine the several hours which overtime should be paid for, then determine whether you have to pay for time, either double or halftime, then simply establish the normal rate you should make use of to compute the overtime pay.

Standard Pay Rate 

When California overtime pay is calculated, you have to utilize the regular rate pay of employee’s, not the standard per hour amount. The standard rate just isn’t merely an employee’s regular per hour amount. The standard rate is actually a phrase used to imply the employee’s legitimate price of pay once all per hour earnings and also a number of other kinds of compensation have been taken into consideration. Regular rate of an employee needs to include things almost all types of pay obtained by that worker.

Paying Weekly Overtime

Just hours worked for a straight period can be applied to the weekly 40-hour restriction. This inhibits “pyramiding” of overtime work hours, in which a worker earns overtime in addition to overtime pretty much paid.

Nonexempt Personnel Salary

Having to pay a nonexempt personnel an income doesn’t relieve you of the obligation of paying overtime. Nonexempt staff members need to be settled for those hours worked, which includes any kind of weekly or daily overtime. Calculating weekly and daily overtime in California is extremely difficult and must be done correctly.

Exceptions of Overtime in Certain Industries 

For particular industries, the wage orders have certain exclusions to the basic guidelines for overtime calculation as well as premium pay. In case you’re in an industry like that getting familiar with the exclusions will enable you to stay away from penalties and might even help save you cash.

Wage Orders Mandatory Requirements 

Staff members have absolutely no legitimate foundation to decline overtime work in California, excluding certain limits under particular Wage Orders or maybe a business policy or perhaps a union contract handling the matter. Nevertheless, there are limits on the particular length of overtime you might call for personnel to work for.

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Many employers are trying to cut costs on overtime by all means in our ever-changing economy. Some of these measures for minimizing costs are coming at the expense of the worker. It is common for attorneys specialized in labor law in California to witness abuse of work conditions and employee wages. Many employees who are seeking legal aid for an overtime issue have also on top of that a wrongful termination case of a discrimination case.
Incorrect Payment
When it comes to simple aspects such as minimum wage pay for all the worked hours, some employers, whether intentionally or not, fail routinely to properly pay their employees. Another common issue encountered by attorney firms is not paying employees for travel between job sites or other non-commuting mileage. If left unchecked by an attorney specialized in California labor law, these amounts may add up quickly.

State Vs. Federal
At the state level, there is a difference between federal overtime law and California overtime law. The main difference is the requirement for employers in California to pay 2 times the normal rate if an employee has worked for over 8 hours on their 7th consecutive day of work or over 12 hours in a workday. For employees who just work over 40 hours in a workweek or over 8 hours in a workday, they qualify to be paid at 1.5 times their normal rate.

How to Become Eligible
In order to become eligible to receive overtime payments in California, the employee should be more than 18 years old and to work in a non-professional, non-administrative, non-executive job. This means that the overtime law applies typically for employees that work directly in production and they cannot choose when and how they perform their job.

The California overtime does not cover several categories of employees:

Executives – anyone who manages an organization or a department, is making more than double the minimum wage and supervises more than two employees.

Administrative Employees – anyone whose job doesn’t involve manual labor, is making more than double the minimum wage and can decide when and how they do their work.

Professional Employees – anyone who works in the arts, optometry, dentistry, medicine, law, engineering, accounting, architecture, teaching, sciences, is making more than double the minimum wage and can decide where and how they do their work. Some others such as journalists, student nurses, actors, and drivers are also not covered by some or all aspects of the overtime law in California.

If employees in California should receive overtime payments under the state law, but they are not paid, they can sue their employer under the provision of legal protection against workplace discrimination.

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California has long has a reputation of one of the states that has most protective of employee rights, and all businesses in California or employing California resident must be aware of the laws governing overtime pay. All time during which an employee is “under the control of the employer,” including daily work duties, closing duties, uniform changes, and other job-related tasks is to be compensated at the full hourly rate. As a California employee, it is important to know your rights and laws.

California law requires not only that employees pay 1.5 times your standard hourly rate after 40 hours in a week as mandated by federal law, but also after 8 hours in a single day and on the 7th consecutive day of work and beyond. Employers must also pay double the standard hourly rate after 12 working hours in a single 24 hour period, after 8 hours on a 7th consecutive day of work, and under other circumstances such as state and national holidays. Employees on “standby” or “on call” status must also be paid for their commitment whether they are called to active duty or not.

State law provides very clear outlines of how workers are to be compensated for their time as well as a very specific set of exemptions. The major exempted classes are Executive, Administrative, Professional and Computer Professional categories, and in the view of the law these classes of employee are paid a salary for completing their job duties as opposed to an hourly rate for their time.

Exempted employees are not covered by the standard California overtime pay law, and must meet a number of requirements in order to become exempt. An Executive Exemption is only triggered when an employee both makes at least $640 weekly and meets certain requirements on level of authority within the company.

Administrative exemptions are commonly limited to the supporting fields of companies such as human resources, finance and legal departments, and even within these areas an employee must hold influence on significant matters before becoming ineligible for overtime, making this one of the most difficult exemptions to prove.

The Professional exemption only applies to employees holding advanced degrees, recognized merit in directly creative artistic pursuits, or licensure by the State of California to practice in a field such as law, engineering or accounting. This exemption also requires that an employee have a broad measure of control over day to day duties as well as a high level of operating freedom.

California is well-known for its high-tech culture, and the design of the Computer Professional exemption reflects this. Only computer programmers who play a central role in design and analysis of software are exempt from the overtime law, with most technicians who spend 50 percent or more of their time writing code for specific tasks entitled to overtime pay under California state law.

The California state overtime law is intended to limit abuses of employee freedom by companies, outlining acceptable compensation and time-tracking to protect their rights. Exemptions from this protection are extremely limited, and the burden of proving the validity of an exemption always falls on the employer.

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How many of you work late into the night? Do you get compensated for the extra hours? These are some of the employment issues that arise in various organizations. However, today you can get legal representation from experienced employment attorneys such as UELG. But first, it is important to understand what exemption from the overtime laws mean. For better understanding, one should get acquainted with the following terms:

1. Overtime

Overtime is the extra working hours beyond the normal working hours. The normal working hours depend on various factors, for instance:

• Agreement between the employer and the employee on the working hours
• The profession or trade e.g. Doctors, Engineers, Nurses, Drivers, Teachers, Lawyers, among others.
• Legislation; the labor or employment laws

2. Labor laws

Labor laws are present in every state or country. It is essential as it helps prevent disputes among workers and employers. An employer may decide to force his or her employees to work extra hours without compensating them. Alternatively, the law considers other factors such as health of the employees. This ensures productivity as it preserves the health of workers.

Exemption from overtime laws

With all that said, the concept of overtime can now be explained. First, if you work for longer hours, your employer should pay you. However, not all employees get compensated. When you get paid for the extra time, you are Non-exempt employee otherwise you are exempt employee. In other words, you are exempted from overtime pay. For more information, read through the following topics:

Affected employees

The labor law affects the executive, administrative, and professional employees. They further include the following;

• Employees in the computer software field: If they are paid on hourly basis and they meet the requirements stated in the orders, they are exempted from the overtime laws.
• Drivers: if you are a driver plus your working time is regulated by the U.S Department of Transportation Code of Federal Regulations, then you are exempted. Nevertheless, those drivers whose hours are regulated by the Title 13 of the California Code of Regulations are exempted as well. In addition, Taxi cab drivers do not enjoy the privileges of non-exempt employees.
• Airline employees: Only those workers who work over 40 but not more than 60 hours during the work weeks due to changes not required by their employer but only at the request of the employee.
• Announcers, News Editor or Chief Engineer working in a radio station with a population less than 25,000 people.

Other employees affected include:

• Baby sitters especially under 18 years of age babysitting a minor in the employer’s house.
• Those employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
• Irrigators,
• Sheepherders
• Professional actors

Bottom line

There are legal institutions that deal majorly with employment issues. You can visit the United Employment Law Group for any assistance.

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Recently, the Obama administration has declared a substantial change in the federal labor law. The publication regards the Department of Labor’s final rule, which modernizes the overtime regulations. Ideally, this change under the federal law is meant to extend overtime pay automatically to millions additional Americans.

Nevertheless, although the new rule for salaried workers’ overtime pay determines the employees, who qualify for the overtime pay when they work for not less than 40 hours every week, sometimes employment disputes may arise. When this takes place, it will be necessary for one to hire a United Employees Law Group Lawyer when they require help with legal guidance.

Here are the explanations and repercussions of the new rule:

First, a business cannot hire an individual with an agreed salary, for instance, $50,000 with the condition that they will work for some unpaid overtime hours, even if the worker agrees. As an illustration, the law does not permit an employer and the staff to decide not to follow the law. Therefore, it does not leave the businesses with any discretion in that regard.

Another point is that an enterprise cannot turn a blind eye to workers who are working overtime. Hence, even if an employee works overtime and does not report those hours since they want to demonstrate that commitment or perceive it to be their interest still the employer will not be off the hook. Consequently, an employer will be liable if they are cognizant that this is going on.

Additionally, the opportunities for the employees who wish to work long hours so as to advance their careers or get a promotion will still be there. Nevertheless, a staff member is not allowed to work overtime and not receive payment.

For all that, there are also some ways for a company to get around this law. For instance, a business can hire fewer employees than they had projected so as to cut down these costs. Another way is that a firm can decrease the number of hours its staff works. Even so, in this law, there are not that many loopholes.

Notably, this law seems like a huge added cost for carrying out a business since they will need to increase salaries or pay more ways in the form of wages. Nonetheless, the point is that it is insubstantial since it is a short-term cost for a company. However, they will increase the purchasing power of each.

Furthermore, many people are for this change because there have been numerous instances regarding the purchasing strength of the workers in America. Also, many retail outlets and manufacturers could work their employees for more than 80 hours, and they were not required to pay them overtime.

Recognizably, some of the jobs, which the change will affect the most, are the food and retail services. To explain, a retail or food manager who used make $30,000 a year and who would be exempt under the current law now will not be exempt. Therefore, food services and retailers will be subject to paying them overtime.

Importantly, this law contains an automatic update after three years. The law was updated for the reason that it wasn’t indexed to inflation. Evidently, more than 60% of employees were covered by the law in the 1970’s. However, more and more of them were moved outside the coverage as inflation increased and salary threshold remained the same.

Encouragingly, this law covers around 4 million workers as far as the Obama’s administration is concerned. Regarding percentage, the figure jumps to 35% under the new law compared to 7% under the current law.

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Some employers in California expose workers to unauthorized overtime. If you have been a victim, then you need to ask for compensation. Normally, an employee is supposed to work 8 hours in a day. In a week you are supposed to work a total of 40 hours. This means that any extra hour you will work in a week or day should be paid as overtime. There are some employers who will use different tactics to avoid paying employees.

California Overtime Pay Law

If a given employer is not complying with the law concerning the employment overtime requirement, then you can look for an employment lawyer who will help you file for compensation. You can start by asking for overtime, if the employer will deny you your right, then you can proceed and ask for compensation.

Rate of overtime in California

If you work extra hours in a week, then the employer will be required to pay you one and half times more than the regular rates you are paid. For example, if you work more than 40 hours in a week, then the extra hours you will be paid one and half times more.

If you work more than 8 hours in a day, then you will be as well paid one and half times more for the extra hours which you will work. If you work seven consecutive days in a week, then you will be paid one and half times more on the extra days you will work which will be calculated on an hourly rate. If you work more than 12 hours in a day, then you will be required to have double the payment in each extra hours you will work in a day. If you work for several consecutive hours in a week, you will have double the payment in the 8th day.

Exempt & Non-Exempt Employees

There are some employees in the state of California who are exempt from overtime. They include executives, those in administrative positions and the professionals. Other employees are referred to as non-exempt. This means that they should be paid overtime.

Tricks employers use to expose employees to unauthorized overtime

-An employer requiring employees to clock out before they start cleaning

-Some employers in California will ask the employees to clock out before they start cleaning the workshop in preparation for the next day job. This is a trick which the employees use which can expose you to unauthorized overtime.

-Managers assigning work late in the day and ask you to finish by the next day morning

This is another form of exploitation. You will clock out but the requirement by your employer will force you to work overnight in your home. This will expose you to unaccounted overtime. A manager receiving work related emails is also another form of unaccounted overtime.

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Increasing work hours today has led to the concept of overtime payment worldwide. Employees across the globe who work overtime exceeding the regular work hours are compensated in the form of overtime payment subjected to rules and regulations set by the company. In California which is witnessing rise in overtime activities, there has been much debate about how to ensure that the employees are eligible for the overtime payment or not.

According to the country guidelines and laws, most of the employers in California are subjected to pay overtime wages to their workers and employee. The payment is considered to exactly 50 percent of the individual’s hourly salary which in legal terms means “time and a half” payment. Usually anything above 40 hours a week or 8 hours daily is considered to be overtime in California. But not every employee or worker is entitled to overtime payment; certain laws of overtime exemptions have been set in California to ensure that the individual not eligible is exempted from the overtime payment. Let’s look at three most important categories of overtime exemptions in California.

Professional Exemption

Employees who are majorly working in a field of science or research that requires advanced and deep knowledge are usually considered exempted from the overtime. Also, individuals who are involved in creative work like innovation, invention, art or talent are also subjected to professional exemption. There are usually three different listings of professional exemption which includes learned professional exemption, creative professional execution and computer professional execution. In case of learned and creative professional execution employees receiving a weekly salary of $800 and spending more than 50 percent of time behind advance studies or creative works are not paid for overtime, while computer professionals are not usually considered for overtime according to overtime exemptions in California.

Executive Exemption

An employee of an executive post who looks after and manages a department, enterprise or a certain assigned division and has the authority and power to recruit and fire other people is not considered for overtime payments. It also incorporates employees who earn more than $800 weekly, spend 50 percent of their entire time managing the owner’s company and supervising at least two other individuals.

Administrative Exemption  

The criteria set for employees to be exempted from overtime under administrative exemption includes an individual who is earning more than $800 weekly and performs a certain set of work directly related to the business management. Along with discretion power the employee should also be paying pivotal role in making independent decisions in case of important business issues including operations management and business policy making.

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If you’re working more than the scheduled hours, you have to be paid overtime. The local California laws ensure that employees do not have to work for more hours than they are paid for. However, some companies do not follow these regulations in its true sense. For instance, the labor laws indicate that you cannot work more than your scheduled time to finish your ‘closing duties’. The meaning of closing duties has been given a wide definition, and includes everything from having to change your uniform or having to complete your job in any way when your working hours have been clocked out.

Know Your Employee Rights

If you’re working more than the scheduled hours, you have to be paid overtime. The local California laws ensure that employees do not have to work for more hours than they are paid for. However, some companies do not follow these regulations in its true sense. For instance, the labor laws indicate that you cannot work more than your scheduled time to finish your ‘closing duties’. The meaning of closing duties has been given a wide definition, and includes everything from having to change your uniform or having to complete your job in any way when your working hours have been clocked out.

Know Your Employee Rights

So, if you are working off the clock, there are some things that you should know. First, you need to document that your employer has been forcing you to carry out these duties after your hours has ended. A good way to do this would be to video record it. If you cannot use your smart phone to video record the ordeal, you can also use the voice recording feature. This can act as a proof against your employer, when you bring up the case later on.

What Constitutes Off The Clock Work?

Working off the clock that is not paid for is illegal, and some of the common examples of working off the clock are as follows.
– Having to perform administrative tasks after normal working hours.

– Reworking on a project after work, without any pay.- Waiting for work when one work is complete, and the next work isn’t immediately available. The time in between is to be counted in the working hours.

– Preparation time, like setting up a restaurant in the morning, is to be included in the working hours.

Document Properly

If you cannot video or audio record the event, use documents to prove that you were being forced to work overtime. The labor laws exist to protect California employees from abuses at work. In case you’re having to work apart from your normal hours, you are entitled to double pay after 12 hours of work in a day. Furthermore, the minimum rate cannot be less than $9, which is the minimum wage in California. At the very least, employers are required to pay at least one and a half times the salary if there is overtime, which is more than 8 hours a day, or more than 40 hours a week.

It is very important that you document the events properly. Some of the Californian labor laws may be more complicated than you think – do not worry, we would be able to help you with all that you need to get a fair compensation. After you’ve documented the evidence, give us a call, and we would help you to proceed with your case.

If you, or someone you know, are facing legal issues in the workplace United Employees Law Group has the answers. Call Today for your free and confidential case review. Please feel free to CONTACT US with any questions about this blog or your exact situation.

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