Los Angeles Employment Lawyer

Overtime Pay in California

In California, an eight-hour work day and a forty-hour work week are considered average. If your employer wants you to work more than eight hours in one day, or more than forty hours in one week, they are obligated to pay you overtime. Overtime is legally defined as one and a half times your usual pay, for up to twelve hours. After that, it is double your usual pay.

For example, say an employee has worked eight hours today for eight dollars an hour. If their employee wants them to stay at work any longer, the employee must be paid twelve dollars for every extra hour they stay at work, for up to twelve hours. If the employer wants this employee to work even longer than twelve hours, the employee must be paid double their usual wage – in our example, that makes sixteen dollars – for every additional hour they work.

In California, some employees are exempt from overtime pay. Professional, executive and administrative employees are usually paid yearly salaries instead of hourly wages, and thus do not qualify for overtime pay. Anyone employed by the state or a national service program may also be required to work long hours with no overtime. Actors, carnival workers, drivers of commercial trucks and taxi cabs, immediate family of the employer, nursing school students and fishing boat employees may also be required to work long hours without being paid overtime.

If you are not being paid the overtime you deserve, or if you have any questions about whether you qualify for overtime, contact Los Angeles employment lawyer Perry Smith at (888) 356-2529.