Understand Overtime Pay Under the California Labor Laws

Under the California Labor Laws, employers must ensure that employees working over 8 hours a day will receive an overtime pay. On the other hand, those who work 12 hours a day must receive twice the standard rate of pay.

If employees work on seven consecutive days, they must be paid 1.5 times the usual rate for the initial 8 hours worked on the seventh consecutive day and double time pay for any hours worked over 8 hours.

It is also noted that California employees are paid weekly; twice a month or monthly may be eligible for overtime pay.

Further, the owners should automatically provide meal breaks and rest breaks to their employees according to the California Labor Laws. Once the employer does not provide the said breaks, they shall be entitled to pay the employees with an additional one hour of the regular pay for every workday wherein the breaks is not provided.

A common misconception about overtime pay is that an employee on salary is automatically exempted from overtime disbursement. But in truth and in fact, all California employees paid in salary whether, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis may be eligible for the overtime pay.

A new state regulation comes out each year and a new state overtime pay law was established in 2004. Employers often accidentally or purposely misclassified workers as exempt employees to avoid paying costly overtime pay.

California is the only state with the most stringent overtime laws than any other states in the US. Failure to pay overtime pay is one of the most serious violations under the California Labor Laws.

In California, there are number of laws that protect workers and employees against unfair employment practices and labor law violations. Therefore, employees have nothing to worry in such events.