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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The California Labor Laws require employees to meet certain requirements. They include the provision of rest breaks, paying overtime and or tracking hours. However, there are jobs that are exempt from such requirements. People that earn a living from such jobs can be classified as exempt employees. Such people are not subject to either one or more sets of California wage and hour laws.

The Requirements

For a California employee to be classified as an exempt employee, he or she must meet a certain threshold. It is only when they meet this threshold that they qualify to be “exempt” from rest breaks, minimum wage, and overtime. To start with, their job duties should involve making independent decisions and use of discretion.

Another requirement of an exempt employee is that their duties should be executive, administrative or professional. Most people will simply refer to such duties as white-collar duties. The last requirement that meets the threshold of an exempt employee is that his or her salary should be at least twice as much as California’s minimum wage. (Full-time employment wage.)

Job Titles With Exemptions

Other types of jobs with an exemption include private school teachers, outside salespersons, computer professionals, surgeons and physicians, commissioned employees and union employees. A simple way of determining if one is an exempt employee is by answering the question: “is the employee paid on an hourly basis or does he or she have a monthly salary?”

If the employee has a salary, then he or she is an exempt employee. It is important to keep in mind that such salary is always predetermined and will not change depending on the number of hours one has worked.

A fancy job title does not in any way qualify one to be an exempt employee. Employees that devote more than 50% of their working time managing or running a business are exempt employees. Such employees have a responsibility in finance sections, accounting, research, government relations, quality control, database administration, human resources and quality compliance.

Exempt employees have a primary duty of managing an entire business or at least one of its departments. Note that if an exempt employee shows up for work but there is no job for him or her to do, he or she is still entitled to a payment. Another characteristic of an exempt employee is that they can hire and fire other employees at their discretion. They also direct the work of other employees.

Labor Commissioner

When the Labor Commissioner wants to determine if one is an exempt employee, he or she will look into the employee’s duties during workweeks. If they fit the above criteria, then the employee qualifies to as an exempt employee. Exempt employees are rarely supervised directly.

Other employees that can be categorized as exempt employees are learned professionals with advanced knowledge acquired by specialized and prolonged study, licensed professional like architects, lawyers, and engineers. In case an employer finds it hard to determine whether an employee is nonexempt or exempt, they can make use of exempt/nonexempt wizard and nonexempt and exempt forms and checklists.

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