In all states, there are certain situations in which employees are owed overtime pay. If they are paid an hourly wage, they generally deserve to be paid time-and-a-half. Most often, this applies when the employee works more than 40 hours in a single week. If someone worked 42 hours, for example, the last two hours would be paid at time-and-a-half their standard rate.
However, California has some specific overtime laws that apply differently than they do elsewhere. It is important to know how this works, especially because time-and-a-half may not always be enough to constitute proper payment. In some cases, employees are actually owed double time, or twice their normal rate.
The “in excess of 12 hours” rule
To start with, if an employee works more than 12 hours in one day, they should be paid double their normal rate for the extra hours. It does not matter if they have worked 40 hours during the week or not. If someone worked 16 hours in one day, for example, they would be paid their standard rate for the first eight hours, time-and-a-half for the next four hours, and double time for the final four hours. This would be true even if they only worked that single day each week.
The “seventh consecutive day” rule
Additionally, some employees may have to work seven days in a row. If an employee works more than eight hours on this seventh day, then they should be paid double time, rather than time-and-a-half. If they were only paid 1.5 times their normal rate, as they would be in other states, the employer would violate California-specific overtime laws.
Your legal options
Are you facing a wage and hour dispute, perhaps because of inappropriate overtime pay? Take the time to carefully consider all of your legal options. Legal guidance can help.