In the last post, I discussed the federal overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor. Today’s post discusses the more stringent overtime laws in California compared to the federal rules. The Department of Industrial Relations sets the guidelines for overtime which are as follows:
A non-exempt employee 18 years of age or older, or any minor employee 16 or 17 years of age who is not required by law to attend school and is not otherwise prohibited by law from engaging in the subject work, shall not be employed more than eight hours in any workday or more than 40 hours in any workweek unless he or she receives one and one-half times his or her regular rate of pay for all hours worked over eight hours in any workday and over 40 hours in the workweek.
Eight hours of labor constitutes a day’s work, and employment beyond eight hours in any workday or more than six days in any workweek is permissible provided the employee is compensated for the overtime at not less than:
- One and one-half times the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked more than eight hours up to and including 12 hours in any workday, and for the first eight hours worked on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek; and
- Double the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked more than 12 hours in any workday and for all hours worked more than eight on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek.
Overtime is based on the regular rate of pay, which includes several different kinds of remuneration, such as hourly earnings, salary, piecework earnings, and commissions. Certain types of payments are excluded from the regular rate of pay. Examples of some of the more common exclusions are sums paid as gifts for special occasions, expense reimbursements, payments made for occasional periods when no work is performed due to vacation, holiday, illness, failure of the employer to provide sufficient work, premium pay for Saturday, Sunday, or holiday work, and discretionary bonuses.
There are numerous exemptions (too many to list in this blog post) for those who are not entitled to overtime, but that information can be found at http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_OvertimeExemptions.htm.
California does allow for an alternative workweek where overtime does not apply. This schedule allows for four 10-hour days or three 12-hour days.
If you are a California employer, make sure you follow these more stringent overtime rules to avoid any penalties by the Department of Industrial Relations.
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