What is legally overtime?

Overtime is when an employee works extra time. It can include work done: beyond their ordinary hours of work. outside the agreed number of hours.

What is an overtime violation?

If an employer wrongfully denies overtime pay to an eligible employee, it can be considered a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. This means that the employee may be able to take legal action to recover lost overtime wages that should have been paid to him or her.

Is unpaid overtime illegal?

Yes, many white-collar workers do overtime without extra pay. Their employment contract states they are required to “provide a reasonable amount of unpaid overtime” or “work longer hours if required”, or another legal condition to that effect

Can my employer force me to do overtime?

Under the modern awards and the Fair Work Act 2009, employers can request that employees work “reasonable overtime”. … An employee may refuse to work overtime hours if the overtime hours are unreasonable.

Can you say no to overtime?

If your contract doesn’t mention overtime then you have a right to say no but if you say no without a good reason, it might damage your relationship with your boss. They might try to change the working hours in your contract.

Can I refuse to work unpaid overtime?

What if employees refuse? Employees can only be required to work overtime, paid or unpaid if provided for in their contract. In the absence of any such provision, staff will be within their right to refuse to work outside of their contracted hours.

Who qualifies for overtime pay?

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has made two distinctions between a company or organization’s employees: exempt and non-exempt. Non-exempt employees must record their hours worked each workweek and must be paid overtime wages in an amount of 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for all hours over 40 in a workweek.

Who is exempt from overtime?

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) states that employees employed as “bona fide executive, administrative, professional and outside sales employees” and “certain computer employees” may be considered exempt from both minimum wage and overtime pay. These are sometimes called “white collar” exemptions.

How do I calculate overtime hours?

Overtime Hours are hours worked past 40 per week. The easiest calculation for overtime pay involves hourly employees. The formula can be expressed as (Regular Rate * Straight Time) + ((Regular Rate *1.5) * Overtime Hours). Salaried employees are also entitled to overtime pay under the FLSA.

What to do if the employer refuses to pay?

Contact your employer (preferably in writing) and ask for the wages owed to you. If your employer refuses to do so, consider filing a claim with your state’s labor agency. File a suit in small claims court or superior court for the amount owed.

How can I report my employer for not paying overtime?

You can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, and include information regarding your job title, pay, hours, and additional information from pay stubs and other payment information. You can also pursue your case at a state level, with state labor and employment division resources.

Can I sue for not getting paid on time?

Yes. An employee who is owed unpaid wages can file a lawsuit against their employer to recover unpaid wages, in addition to other damages provided by law. An employer who pays late wages or fails to make final payments available violates California wage and hour laws.

What happens if your work over pays you?

Where an employer has made an accidental overpayment of wages/salary or expenses (including holiday pay) to an employee, the employer can legally recover this overpayment from an employee by deducting the overpaid amount from future wages or salary (or any money due to the employee if they leave)

Why You Should Hire Overtime Lawyer Today

Call or Request a Consultation Online Today with your #1 Overtime Lawyers in California Stevens & McMillan! We are open Monday through Friday 8:30 am to 5:30 pm!

California overtime laws are complex and employers constantly make mistakes when calculating overtime, meaning they could be withholding money from your paychecks.

California Labor Code section 510 requires employers to pay their non-exempt employees an overtime rate of one-and-a-half times their regular rate of pay for all time worked over 8 hours a day or 40 hours of straight time in a week. Furthermore, the same overtime law requires time worked over 12 hours in a day or over 8 hours on the seventh consecutive day to be paid at twice your regular rate of pay. This is a mandatory law and cannot be waived.

Below are some examples and scenarios involving overtime to help you determine whether or not you may have a case for unpaid overtime:

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General Overtime Example

Sally Doe works for Cali Corporation as a filing clerk for $15.00 per hour. It is more likely than not that Sally qualifies for overtime because she is a non-exempt employee. Her work duties likely do not rise to the level of an Executive, Administrative, or Professional employee. This means that Sally is eligible to earn $22.50 per hour for time worked over 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week. Sally will also be eligible to earn $30.00 per hour for any time worked past 12 hours in a day or anytime worked past 8 hours on the seventh consecutive day worked.

What is straight time and how does it affect how I get overtime?

A professional overtime lawyer can tell you “Straight time” is normal working hours that are paid at a regular rate. These straight-time hours are the only hours that apply to the 40-hour limit on hours worked. Anything above the 40-hour limit will be overtime.

For example:

Let’s say Sally Doe worked 10 hours a day from Monday through Thursday. This means that Sally would have worked 8 hours of straight time and 2 hours of overtime from Monday through Thursday. This would be a total of only 32 straight-time hours that go towards the 40-hour workweek. For Sally to get weekly overtime wages, she will have to work over 40 straight-time hours.

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What happens if I work the night shift? Am I still eligible for overtime even if with the new day beginning at 12:00 AM?

It depends. Normally a “workday” is any consecutive 24-hour period starting at the same time each calendar day. This is usually from 12:01 AM to midnight, however, an employer can designate another 24-hour work period. An employer may only change the 24-hour work period if the employer intends for the change to be permanent. Daily overtime is based on the number of hours worked in a single workday. So for employees who work from 6:00 PM to 5:30 AM, (assuming a 30-minute meal break) they would have worked for 11 hours total. Usually, an employee would be entitled to 3 hours of overtime, however, because a new day started at 12:01 AM, any time prior does not count towards the overtime for the next day. This means that the employees would only earn 11 hours of regular pay.

What if I work for an employer that pays me at two different rates of pay? How is overtime calculated then?

An expert overtime lawyer can show you that some employers may have their employees paid at different rates for different types of work as long as the employee has advanced notice of the different rates. The way overtime is calculated is by taking all the hours worked in a week and dividing it by the total compensation earned in the week.

For example:

Sally Doe has two rates of pay, one at $15.00 per hour for driving the company truck and another at $18.00 per hour for all other work done. Sally just completed 50 hours of work for the week, 20 hours were spent driving the company truck and 30 hours were doing other work. The way we calculate her overtime rate is by taking 20 hours x $15.00 = $300 and 30 hours x $18.00 = $540, for a total of $840 earned for the week. Then we take the $840 and divide that by 50 hours equaling $16.80 which gives us the regular rate of pay. To calculate the overtime premium we divide $16.80 by 2 to get $8.40. We then add the $8.40 to Sally’s regular rates anytime she works overtime. This means whenever Sally is driving the company truck over 8 hours, she will be entitled to earn $23.40 per hour and when she is doing other work over 8 hours, she will be entitled to earn $26.40 per hour.

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What if I work for an employer who provides me a rate for working on public works projects that is separate from my regular rate of pay? How do I calculate overtime?

If you talk to any overtime lawyer you will find the wage you earn while working on public works projects is called the “prevailing wage.” This is typically different than the employee’s regular rate of pay. For purposes of calculating overtime, employers must select the higher wage between the weighted average of the rates and the prevailing wage. The higher rate will be used for any overtime worked while working on public works projects. If the weighted average between the two rates is higher, then the employer must use that rate for any overtime earned while working on public works projects.

I just received a bonus at work for working a holiday weekend, does that bonus factor into my overtime calculation?

For the most part, yes. If an employee earns a flat-sum bonus such as an employee appreciation bonus and that employee works overtime, then the bonus must be factored into that employee’s wage. 

For example:

Sally Doe is making $15.00 per hour and worked 40 total non-overtime hours and 10 overtime hours. She was given a bonus of $50 for that workweek. First, we need to determine what her bonus looks like as a wage. We take the $50 and divide it by the 40 regular hours, giving us a total of $1.25 per hour. Then we multiply the $1.25 by 1.5 (time and a half) to get $1.88. Next, we multiplied the $1.88 times the number of overtime hours she worked to get $18.80. So Sally’s total compensation for the week would be $600 (regular hours) + $225 (overtime hours) + $50 (bonus) + $18.80 (Overtime on the bonus) = $893.80.

California worker

As you can imagine, employers make mistakes in these calculations all the time, meaning they could be withholding money from your paychecks. If you have any questions as to how you, your friends, or loved ones are being paid, do not hesitate to call our office and ask questions. We have extensive experience in handling these types of wage issues.

Even if you believe your case is small, if many employees work for your company that have similar overtime issues, Our professional overtime lawyer team may be able to bring your case as a class action. Call your local Employment Lawyers at Stevens & McMillan today!

Overtime in California

Workers have suffered some disappointments over the years when it came to their rights and protection. California, however, has made strides to make sure its workers have the protections and rights they deserve, even when federal law fails them. Let’s look at the reasons California workers have a reason to celebrate.

  1. Increases in wage-and-hour

Recently, there has been much discussion about the minimum wage. It hasn’t increased federally since 2009 when it went up from $6.55 an hour to $7.25 an hour. California’s minimum wage will rise to $15 an hour on January 2, 2023. California’s minimum wage is currently $12 an hour or $11 an hour, depending on how many employees an employer has. Some cities, such as Pasadena and San Diego, have higher minimum wages than others, like San Diego, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Berkeley. This is something that many workers should be proud of.

California has made it easier to receive overtime or time and a half pay in 2019. This is good news for agricultural workers. These workers were not eligible for overtime pay before they worked more than 10 hours per day or 60 hours per week. The phased-in changes will see all agricultural employers be required to pay overtime by 2025. This will replace the previous 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week. Only agricultural employers with more than 25 employees will be affected. They will have to pay overtime if their employees work more than 9.5 hours per day or 55 hours per week.

  1. Protections against discrimination based on national origin or ancestry have been improved

The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), offered some protection for applicants and employees who are subject to discrimination based on national origin. However, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), introduced more protections last July by expanding the definition of “national Origin” and defining what constitutes national origin discrimination.

  1. Training on sexual harassment and human trafficking has been increased

Employers must provide 20 minutes of training and education on human trafficking for employees who may come in contact with victims. Employees whose jobs involve frequent interactions with the public (such as hotel cleaners or receptionists) will be subject to this requirement. This is something that everyone can celebrate, even the employees who save people from being trafficked.

There are new requirements regarding training in sexual harassment. All employers that have at least five employees must comply with the sexual harassment training requirements by 2020. Two hours of training must be received by supervisors within six months of their appointment. Then, they will need to receive it again every two years. Supervisors do not have to train their employees, but the training must be one hour in length.

  1. Protections against sexual harassment have been improved

Many recent laws have been passed because of the MeToo movement. One new law, for example, prohibits companies from demanding secrecy in settlements related to sexual harassment/assault or sex-based discrimination. Victims will have the right to speak out against their abusers and won’t be bound by confidentiality provisions in settlement agreements. This law should help to end repeated abuses by the same harassers with different victims.

  1. There are more women on corporate boards

California has become the first state to require gender diversity. This is a very exciting development. Publicly traded companies with California headquarters will have to include at least one woman on the boards of directors by 2019. Boards with at least five directors must have at least two women, while boards with six or more must have three women. This is good news for all women. Research has shown that women on boards are more productive and make more profit. The new legislation doesn’t require men to resign from their board positions. Companies are allowed to increase the number.

  1. The safety of workers requires more accountability

Federal employees have less protection from workplace injuries and illnesses. However, recent developments in California offer workers additional protection. The Division of Occupational Safety and Health (also known as Cal/OSHA) now has five years instead of six months to issue citations to employers for failing to properly record injuries and deaths. This means that employers are held more accountable and workers are protected better.

This list should have provided some relief or comfort to California workers. California’s current legislators realize that workers are the backbone of any society. It is possible to expect that worker protection will remain a top priority under Governor Gavin Newsom.

There are still rights violations despite the existence of legislation. This is why employees and employers need to be familiar with the laws.

To rectify an injustice, an overtime employment lawyer should be consulted if you believe your rights as an employer have been violated.

Call NOW toll-free at (800) 738-3353 for a FREE CONSULTATION with NO RECOVERY – NO FEE (No Up-front Costs, Fees, or Charges) if you feel like your rights may have been violated.