California Overtime Law 2023

What Is Overtime Law in California?

California overtime law is the law that governs wages and hours of all the non-exempt employees working in the state of California. California is well known for its employee-friendly stance, and this law dictates when an employee must be paid wages for overtime.

Under California’s Overtime Law, employers are required to pay all the eligible employees aged 18 years or more working in the state of California additional pay for the work done in excess of the standard 8 hours per workday or the standard 40 hours per workweek. A standard working day constitutes 8 hours of working time. Any additional hour of work beyond 8 hours shall be compensated with additional premium pay in accordance with the California Overtime Law.

All the non-exempt employees who are qualified for overtime are paid 1.5 times the regular rate-

• for all hours worked in excess of 8 hours in a workday (but only upto 12 hours in a workday), and in excess of 40 hours in a workweek,
• and for the first eight hours worked on the 7th consecutive day in any workweek.

This overtime pay is termed as being paid ‘time and a half’.

Whereas, an employee is entitled to double the regular pay rate for –

• hours worked more than 12 hours on any workday
• and hours worked in excess of 8 hours on the 7th consecutive day of the workweek.

This is often described as “double time”.

Overtime is not required for a regular schedule, which is not more than 10 hours/workday.

Compensatory Rest in Lieu of Overtime Pay

Employees can ask the employer for compensatory time instead of overtime premium if all of the following conditions are met:

• The employee works 40-hour (has full-time employment);
• The employee asked the employer in writing for comp time instead of overtime;
• The employee has not yet accumulated more than 240 hours of comp time; and
• There was already a written agreement between the employer and employee regarding comp time;

The compensating time off is provided pursuant to applicable provisions of a collective bargaining agreement, memorandum of understanding, or other written agreement between the employer and the duly authorized representative of the employer’s employees.

Employers must follow both federal and state overtime rules. Federal overtime requirements are explained in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In some cases, if differences exist between California and federal state overtime rules, then an employer must follow the rule that gives the most benefit to the employee. Ideally, California laws provide the most benefits to its employees, as it is well known for its employee-friendly stance.

Defining “Workday”

As defined in the industrial welfare commission orders, a workday is typically 24 hours long. A workday can start at any time during the day or night, but the subsequent workday should start at the same time. The workday doesn’t necessarily start at 12 and end 24 hours later. For example: if an employee starts a workday at 8 AM, then the second subsequent workday wouldn’t start until 8 AM the next day. Once the workday is established by the employer, it can only be modified if the change is permanent but not made to avoid overtime pay.

Defining “Workweek”

Similarly, a workweek in California is defined as a 7 consecutive 24 hours period or 168 consecutive hours. A workweek can start at any time of any day as long as the time and day is fixed and recurring, but once 168 consecutive hours are up, so is the workweek. Similar to the workday, a workweek can only be changed or modified if it is permanent and not to avoid overtime pay.