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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With so many lawsuits involving situations where employers have misclassified nonexempt employees as exempt employees, it’s vital that employers understand the differences and the eligibility for each. This article looks at the classifications of exempt and nonexempt employees according to California laws.

California Exempt and Nonexempt Employee Classification

Salary 

To be exempt, an employee must be earning more than twice the minimum wage and must be in full-time employment. Earning is not an automatic qualification for exemption.

Exempt employees receive full weekly pay for all the weeks they worked. Therefore, the number of deductions that can be made on an exempt employee’s salary are few.

Job Title

An employee’s job title is not a determining factor. A big job title employee may still be nonexempt, as long as the job duties do not conform to the requirements to be exempt.

Duties Test

Employees under California laws need work half of the job time on exempt duties for them to become exempt employees.

A majority of employees classified as being exempt regularly make independent decisions at their places of work. Their jobs involve evaluating situations and deciding on the course of action independently.

Determination by California’s Labor Commissioner

A labor commissioner will examine the duties performed by an employee to determine if they’re to be categorized as exempt or nonexempt.

Deductions From The Pay of Exempt Employees

Employers should not deduct the pay of exempt employees for the day’s work is unavailable, so long as the employees are willing and in a position to perform work. In such cases, California laws on exempt employees require that they be paid the full weeks’ pay, even if they worked for one day.

California vs Federal laws on Exemptions

These are slight differences in the way federal and state laws apply to employee exemptions for specific job descriptions. The following are exemptions for California job duties.

Executives

Managers are still required to meet the requirements to be exempt. Otherwise, they would remain to be nonexempt.

Professional Employees

They still need to meet specific requirements for professional exemption.

Employees in Administrative Positions

Not every senior employee is exempt unless their duties match those performed by exempt employees according to California laws.

Computer Professionals

In the year 2000, state law was amended to be in line with federal law regarding computer professionals, exempting them from overtime.

Artists

Not many artists qualify to be exempt under California laws due to the nature of their work; most are self-employed, with full control of the hours they work.

Salespeople

They’re categorized into inside and outside salespeople to define their statuses as either exempt or nonexempt as defined by California laws.

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If you look at your paystub and you’re wondering why you’re not getting as much as your salary is supposed to give you, then keep on reading. It is important to manage your finances and budgeting and a large part of that is understanding your paycheck stub and the deductions that occur every time you get paid.

What is Usually Included in a Paystub?

Different companies might print their paychecks in different ways, but there are always several key components that employers need to include on the statement by law.

• Gross wages: This is total amount of income you earned over the pay period. Pay periods are usually either bi-weekly or monthly, this is determined by the employer. If you are a salaried employee, this is simply your yearly salary divided by the amount of times. If you are paid hourly, the paystub would show your pay rate (your pay per hour) and the number of hours worked. Your gross wage would be these two multiplied together. Keep in mind that this is not the amount that you get paid, because it does not include deductions.
• Federal tax: Besides Medicare and Social Security, this is a cut of your paycheck that is taken by the federal government. If you remember back when you were first hired, you might recall filling out a W-4 form. This form indicated your tax situation (exemptions, status, and so forth) and let your employer know how much to withhold from your pay for federal taxes.
• State tax: Whether you have to pay state taxes depends on the state in which you are residing and working. California does participate in state taxes, and this money usually goes into funding for state programs such as public safety, public works, education, health, court justice system, and more.
• Local tax: This is less common, and will depend on the city you live in. New York and Washington DC are among the several cities that have this additional city tax.
• Social security: This money is set beside by the federal government in order to provide benefits for the elderly. When you retire, you will be able to use social security benefits in the form of a monthly social security payment.
• Medicare: Medicare is similar to social security in that a certain percentage is deducted from your paycheck, and when you retire at 65, this money is used to help cover health insurance.
• Other: You may see additional withholdings and deductions, such as life insurance premiums or retirement plan contributions, such as a 401K
• Net pay: This is the amount you get paid after all deductions have been made, the amount that is given to you on  your paycheck or direct deposit.

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