California Overtime
California Labor Laws protect the rights of California employees to receive overtime pay for working more than 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week. You can still be entitled to overtime even if you are paid on a salary basis, even if your salary is $100K per year, and even if you supervise other people. The only people who are not entitled to overtime pay are those people that meet all of the requirements for one or more of the narrowly defined Exemptions.
Major Change in California Computer Professional Law for 2008
The California Legislature has passed a new law that, effective January 1, 2008 will eliminate overtime for a large portion of California's computer programmers. The law "resets" the minimum hourly rate of pay to $36.00 per hour -- a drastic reduction from the $49.77 that was previously required. The law initially provided for a base rate of pay of $41.00 per hour in 2001 and provided that it increase by a cost-of-living increase each year. Following these increases, the minimum pay was $49.77 for 2007. However, the new law sets the base rate to $36.00 and the cost-of-living increases will start being based on this number for 2009. Computer programmers who are losing their right to overtime pay should contact me immediately to recover for past overtime. Information about the Computer Professional change for 2008 can be found here.
Important Update of California Labor Law Regarding Meal and Rest Breaks
The California Supreme Court has just issued an important California Labor Law decision in the case of Murphy v. Kenneth Cole and determined that employees can sue for violations of California meal and rest break provisions going back a period of three years. In addition, it is likely that employees would be able to go back a total of four years under unfair competition laws. This is a major help to employees as previously, the DLSE ("California Labor Board") had restricted the claims to only a one year period. A copy of this landmark California Labor Law decision can be found here.
In addition to the meal break pay, the additional pay provided for these missed breaks can increase the amount of overtime you are due.
Overtime Occupations
Just about every occupation in California is covered by California overtime law.. If you work in any of the following types of work, you can be entitled to overtime, and employers frequently make mistakes in determining whether or not you are entitled:
Field Service Engineer Overtime
Resident Apartment Manger Overtime
Non-Profit Work
Video Game Programmers and Artists Overtime
Computer Programmers Overtime
Information Technology (IT) Workers Overtime
Nurses Overtime and Other Labor Laws for Travel Nurses
Care Providers and Personal Attendants
EMTs and Ambulance Drivers
Salespeople Overtime
Loan Officers Overtime
Truck Drivers Overtime
Attorneys Overtime
Car washes, dry cleaners, other manual work
Think Twice Before Going to the California Labor Board
If you have thought about taking your overtime claim to the California Labor Commissioner (DLSE), you will want to read this page first. You will find that my law firm is an excellent, cost effective, alternative to both the California Labor Board and other high priced attorneys. California overtime law can be complex, especially in the IT and high tech industry and the Labor Commissioner frequently does not take the time to understand the issues.
Learn the Law
In order to best use this website, you should first read the section on the Facts of California overtime law. Next, read the section on the California Labor Law, which provides a more detailed and legal discussion. If you are interested in going forward and wonder how a typical case might proceed, read the section on the California Labor Law Process. You can read the California Labor Law FAQ for miscellaneous questions. If you have questions, comments, or are interested in finding out more about a potential claim, you can email me or call.
This website only provides general information about California overtime laws and is not meant to be legal advice and does not serve to establish an attorney-client relationship. Any statements, on this page or elsewhere, are not guarantees of any outcome.
Additional Resources
In addition to information about California overtime law, you can also find information about various California Labor Laws on these other websites: California Meal Breaks and California Private Attorney General Act which allows you to sue on behalf of the State of California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. For a contemporary look at various employment and labor issues, you can listen to my Labor Law Radio show which covers issues including wrongful termination, hostile work environment, and other areas of California Labor Law. I periodically post news items of interest on my California Labor and Employment Law Blog.