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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There are several lawsuits which have resulted from misclassification of employees by employers. Some employers classify employees as exempt while they are clearly nonexempt. To avoid getting on the wrong side of the law, employers should carefully analyze their employees’ work duties or receive advice from experts such as experienced human resource professionals and attorneys.

Generally, the laws of the State of California presume all employees as nonexempt. Nonexempt employees strictly adhere to California’s Labor Code. In other words, they are not exempt from factors such as overtime pay and the minimum wage. On the other hand, as the name suggests, exempt employees are exempt from certain wage and hour requirements because of their pay and duties.

Job Titles

More than 50% of the time of exempt employees is spent performing exempt duties. It should be noted that job titles are irrelevant. Having a big title does not guarantee or meet the threshold of classifying an employee as an exempt employee. For the Labor Commissioner to determine whether an employee is exempt or nonexempt, he or she looks into the duties performed by an employee during workweeks. Sales employees must earn at least twice the minimum wage every month for full-time employment.

Exempt Employee Duties

Mostly, employees classified as exempt employees exercise independent judgment and discretion in performing their duties. For example, they may fire and hire other employees. They have management duties that involve directing the work of other employees or departments in an enterprise. They make crucial decisions after considering various possibilities.

Exempt employees are paid for a full week salary whenever they perform their duties any week. As such, there are limited deductions to an exempt employee’s salary. If there is the unavailability of work at any given time in a week, as long as the exempt employee was ready to work, he or she is still entitled to a full week of pay.

Managerial and administrative employees are considered as exempt employees unless they do not meet certain requirements. They are strictly classified as nonexempt employees if they do not meet these requirements. Note that not all professional employees are classified as exempt employees. There are legal requirements that they must meet for them to be classified as such.

Artists

According to a California law amendment in the year 2000, some computer professionals have an overtime exemption. The situation is different with artists since they self-employed meaning that they have the control over the nature of their work. In the case of sales members, they are classified as either outside or inside salespeople for simplicity in classifying them as either nonexempt or exempt employees. For easy evaluation and differentiation between nonexempt and exempt employees, one may use the exempt/nonexempt wizard tool or nonexempt vs. exempt forms and checklists.

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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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California Labor Law is quite clear on work hours and overtime pay. As such, all California employers and employees ought to familiarize themselves with these laws for the better. Legal knowledge is your right. If you are an employer, getting to know these laws will save you a lot of trouble so you don’t break them. Better safe than sorry.

Non-Exempt Employees

California employers are required to pay nonexempt employees the required premiums when they work beyond their regular work hours. It is important that they clearly define regular work hours, workdays and workweeks to their employees. Once they do so, they should be consistent. They should also apply the ‘seventh-day’ rule. Doing this makes employees know when they are expected for work.

8, 12, and 40 Hour Laws

The general rule is that nonexempt employees should not work for more than 8 hours in any given workday or more than 40 hours in a workweek unless they receive an overtime pay. Extra work hours means extra pay at extra rates.

An employee should be paid one and one-half times his or her regular rate for all hours worked after the regular 8 hours up to 12 hours. Any extra hours worked over the 12th hour in a day means that they should be paid double their regular rate. The same also applies to the 7th consecutive day that one has worked in a workweek.

Piece Rate Employees

Other than overtime pay, there are other times where employers are required to pay their employees. For instance, piece rate workers ought to be paid for recovery periods, rest and other non-productive time at certain hourly rates which are separate from the normal piece rate compensation.

Nonexempt employees should also be paid at certain times not spend at work. Such circumstances may include time travel among others. Such pay should be communicated to the employee in advance. The pay is determined by the duration of the event.

Training and Meetings

Whenever employees attend education and training programs and employee meetings, they should be paid the regular amount as if they were at work. There are instances where an employee may request to be out of work during their regular working time to attend to personal duties.

When such an occurrence happens, they are expected to make up for that time without expecting overtime pay. It is important that an employer keeps a record of work hours clocked by his or her employees. Doing this will help avoid future problems or issues that may arise pertaining an employee’s actual work time.

Industrial Welfare Commission

In case of variations of work hours in certain industries, the Industrial Welfare Commission expects employers to keep and maintain an accurate record of the hours worked by employees for accurate pay purposes. Employers should familiarize themselves with the laws that regulate the work hours of minors and how they are spread.

Such hours mainly depend on the industry, age of the minor and the season of the year. Work hours may be extended but only under certain circumstances. Human resource managers may use tools such as the Meal Break Waiver, Meal and Rest Break Quiz, Makeup time Checklist and Alternative Workweek Calendar to count and record work hours.

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