Per California statutes, a non-exempt employee, is entitled to overtime pay if you work over eight hours a day or forty hours within a workweek. Overtime compensation is a form of additional payment, usually time and half the average hourly wages when you work more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a workweek. If you work for twelve hours or more than six days in a week, you are entitled to an overtime wage, double your hourly pay.

Many employees are entitled to overtime pay. Unfortunately, it can be confusing for both the employees and employers with the exemptions of these laws. If there has been a miscalculation or non-payment of these wages, you need to speak to an experienced workers’ comp lawyer.

At The Workers Compensation Lawyer Law Firm, we assist employees in Los Angeles in retrieving their overtime wages. We have provided the following information to learn the basics of when you are eligible for overtime and how to estimate your wages to avoid miscalculation.

General View of California Overtime Law

As indicated above, overtime statutes in California govern the pay and hours of non-exempt workers in the state. Labor Code 510 is the statute that defines these rules, and according to it, non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime wages as compensation for sparing their free time to work. Further, overtime pay acts as an encouragement to employers to hire more workers to avoid the higher salaries associated with working overtime.

Besides this statute, the Federal Labor Standards (FLSA) also regulates the payment of overtime obligations. LC 510 has more provisions than FLSA, but the court applies the more favorable laws to the worker where the two regulations differ.

With employers required to pay time and a half or double the hourly wages to employees who work overtime, they get an incentive to hire more employees instead of paying higher wages, which reduces unemployment in Los Angeles and the whole of California. Further, overtime laws protect employees from overworking.

Note that these rules are intended to protect workers and not employers. So, any time you file a claim with the court, the decision will be in your favor. This means that whenever your employer denies you overtime compensation or violates any of these rules, you have a shot at retrieving the unpaid overtime wages. When commencing this process, consider utilizing a workers’ compensation lawyer’s services because they increase the chances of the court’s verdict being in your favor.

Employees to Whom California Overtime Laws Apply

Overtime rules in Los Angeles apply to non-exempt employees. As an employee, if you hold the non-exempt employment status, it means you are protected under the Industrial Welfare Commission orders. These orders regulate the hourly wages, working conditions, overtime pay, and the number of hours for workers in particular industries.

Keep in mind that your employer carries the burden of classifying you as an exempt employee. Even if your employer gives you a working title to make you look like an exempt employee, it won’t be the case in the eyes of the law. California statutes presume every worker is a non-exempt, eligible for overtime pay unless the employer proves otherwise.

Note that an exemption means that the law doesn’t apply to your classification. If you fail to meet the provisions or requirements for exempt employees, you are a non-exempt employee. The exemptions of overtime law apply to all employees unless you are:

  1. An Independent Contractor

An independent contractor is an individual who provides services as per a contract stating that they should deliver a particular result at a specified pay and maintain control over the means of achieving the results. California labor laws don’t offer any protection, including overtime pay to these individuals whose employer doesn’t have control over their ways of achieving results.

  1. Outside Salespersons

An outside salesperson is an individual 18 years or older, selling items, contracts, or services. These individuals spend the majority of their working hours in the field or outside the office. If you are an outside salesperson, then you are classified as an exempt employee, and overtime laws don’t apply in your case.

  1. Exempt Workers

Being an exempt employee means that California overtime rules don’t apply in your case. You are eligible for this classification if you meet particular requirements by the law. One of the conditions is you must have a fixed wage, two times more than the minimum wages. Additionally, you work under less supervision because your responsibilities allow you to be discreet at work.

The majority of California exempt employees work in white-collar settings and include:

  • Executive or managerial workers
  • Administrative employees
  • Computer professionals

In rare circumstances, overtime rules apply to white-collar exempt workers. However, the following conditions must be real:

  • More than 50 percent of your time at work must be devoted to the executive, professional, or managerial responsibilities.
  • Regularly and customarily exercise discretion and independent judgment
  • Earn a wage of twice the California minimum wage for salaried employees
  1. Job Specific Exemptions

California wage orders enacted by the Industrial Welfare Commission provide multiple exceptions to LC 510. The orders allow for special treatment of camp counselors, personal attendants, live-in household workers, ambulance drivers and attendants, elderly home managers, and agriculturalists.

  1. Exempt Unionized Employees

California LC 510 exempts employees who are members of a union with several qualifications from retrieving overtime wages. If you are an unionized worker, your collective bargaining agreement covers your salary, working conditions, and hours of work. Therefore, this qualifies you as an exempt unionized employee. The collective bargaining contract must also protect your premium wage rates for the hours you work overtime plus a regular hourly wage, thirty percent higher than the minimum wage.

Unless your collective bargaining contract doesn’t meet the above requirements, you are ineligible for California overtime law protection.

  1. Alternative Workweek Schedule

Non-exempt workers in Los Angeles are entitled to overtime pay whenever they work more than eight hours a day. However, your employer can institute or adopt something known as an alternative work schedule. This is a contract between workers and their employer that allows the employees to work for no more than ten hours in a workday without overtime wages. Note that although workers can work for ten hours under the alternative work schedule, the total hours in a week shouldn’t exceed a maximum of forty.

Many industries, like the health sector, are allowed to institute an alternative work schedule. California statutes require a draft proposal and a disclosure for the changes. The qualifications that employers must meet include:

  • The employer must propose the changes or schedule — The employer must draft a written proposal for the workweek schedule containing a series of or single workweek schedule of every worker in a way easy to comprehend. The employees can then choose the plan they deem favorable.
  • The proposal must disclose the schedule to the workers — The employer must disclose to the workers the effects the alternative workweek schedule will have on their earnings, benefits, and hours. The agreement must also state there will be one or more meetings held to discuss the impact of the alternative workweek schedule on the employees before the matter is put to the vote.
  • A worker’s vote — An alternative workweek schedule must get the approval of a minimum of two-thirds of the affected employees in a work-unit. The employer must hold the vote during working hours and through a secret ballot.
  • Reporting the outcome of the vote — The vote’s outcome must be reported to the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLE) and posted within 30 days of the secret ballot results. It is illegal for an employer not to publish the results of the vote. After the DLE approves the plan, your employer can institute it to govern the organization’s workweek schedule.

Every employee is entitled to their opinion. The employer cannot retaliate against or punish workers for having contrary opinions or expressing their opinion regarding the change. Further, as an employee, you are entitled to overtime wages if you work for more hours than those stated in the alternative workweek schedule.

Defining a Workweek

A workweek is typically 168 hours or seven consecutive 24 hours. It can start any day or time of the week if the day and time are fixed and recurring. Once the seven consecutive 24 hours are over, so is the workweek. Once your employer institutes a workweek, it can only be changed if the modification is permanent and not to avoid overtime wages.

Defining a Workday

A workday in Los Angeles lasts for 24 hours. And just like a workweek, it can start any hour of the day or night, if the time will remain fixed for subsequent workdays. Remember that your employer cannot modify a workday to avoid overtime obligations unless they plan on keeping the changes permanent. Once a workday is set, it must remain that way unless there is a legitimate reason for the modification.

Techniques Employers Employ to Evade Overtime Obligations

Overtime obligations are expensive for every employer. To cut down overhead costs of running their business, your employer might look for ways to evade paying these obligations. Any move to deny workers overtime payment is illegal. Unfortunately, this doesn’t deter employers from doing it. The standard techniques relied upon to evade overtime obligations include:

Arguing That You are Unqualified

There is a common misconception among employers and workers that salaried employees are ineligible for overtime wages. Entitlement to overtime pay isn’t dependent on the manner of payment. Being a salaried employee is not an exception. A salaried employee must meet a particular qualification to be unqualified for overtime pay. If you are a salaried worker working as a personal attendant, a news broadcaster, an actor, or covered under a collective bargaining agreement, you are qualified for overtime wages.

Worker Misclassification

Another tactic employers employ to evade overtime payment is misclassifying employees as independent contractors. Your employer might title you as an independent contractor just to avoid paying overtime wages. However, you are not an independent contractor if:

  • Your employer maintains control of how you achieve the results of a project.
  • You are not allowed to take up other projects while performing particular services agreed in the contract.
  • You are not allowed to hire your workers and assistants.

If the above conditions apply in your case, you are not an independent contractor, and your employer has misclassified you just to evade overtime payment.

Requires You to Complete Tasks Outside Working Hours

If your employer asks you to take specific assignments home or complete them after-hours, you are entitled to overtime pay.

Many employers use the above tactics to deny their employees overtime wages. Therefore, if you feel that your employer utilizes misclassification or any other technique to evade overtime obligations, reach out to a workers’ compensation lawyer, to begin the process of retrieving your overtime wages.

Forced or Mandatory Overtime

As per the California wage and hour statutes, employers can force you to work overtime under what is known as mandatory overtime. However, if you have worked more than 72 hours in the previous work week, you have the right to refuse to work overtime without subjection to any punishment.

Some states punish employers with severe sanctions if they declare mandatory overtime. Courts also come to the rescue of workers dismissed or subject to disciplinary action for refusing to work overtime.

Despite California workers being protected by some of the best workers’ rights nationwide, as an employee, you might be subject to harassment or discrimination by your employer for refusing forced work time. Therefore, it’s critical to have a lawyer who understands labor laws by your corner to explain your rights as an employee.

Every worker in the country enters into employment willingly, unless there is an agreement between you and the employer to guarantee your work or limit your discipline. Unless a collective bargaining agreement protects you, your employer has the discretion to fire you for any reason, including refusing mandatory overtime.

Further, the employer is not required to give you a notice or even an opportunity to rectify your mistake. Whatever reason they deem necessary to remove you from their work premises, they have the freedom to exercise it. However, discrimination must be the failure to fulfill employment duties and not a disability, sex, race, or religion.

Overtime obligations are expensive for employers. Therefore, if you are forced to work overtime, you can sit down and reason with your employer to reduce the extra work hours.

Requirements for Overtime Obligations in California

Overtime wages are an increase in your earnings for working during your free hours. The amount of payment you will earn as an employee depends on each shift’s length and the number of days worked in a workweek. The law is clear that non-exempt workers employers should apply time and a half or double time as overtime rates.

If you have worked more than eight hours a day or over forty hours in a workweek, you will receive one and half times your hourly wages for the extra hours. When you work forty non-overtime hours in a workweek and on the 7th consecutive day of the workweek, you will receive one and half times your standard rates for the whole of the seventh day.

Should you work over twelve hours in a workday, the double-time rates will apply. It means that the employer should compensate double your average hourly rates for the extra hours you will be working. Additionally, you are eligible for a double-time rate if you work over eight hours on the seventh day of a workweek.

Not all employers are willing to pay you for overtime hours. Some fail to pay because they don’t understand overtime laws, while others are evading the payment. Whatever the case, you need to retrieve your lost wages, and the best place to start the process is by understanding California overtime laws.

Determining an Employee’s Regular Rate of Pay

Your overtime wages depend on your regular rates of pay. You determine your standard rate of payment depending on the compensation you take home after work. When you are paid hourly with no other form of compensation, then hourly wages will be your regular pay rate. In the case you are a salaried non-exempt employee, who works for non-overtime forty hours in a workweek, you will determine your standard pay rate by dividing your workweek wages by forty.

Note that your weekly salary as a salaried non-exempt worker only compensates you for non-overtime hours. The moment you begin to earn more than one form of compensation, the earnings will contribute towards your regular pay rate, making calculation harder. Here, the rule of thumb is that your wages and other forms of compensation earned will be used in computing your regular rates.

Similarly, it’s possible to make other forms of compensation in a workweek without having to work overtime.

Overtime laws prohibit employers from reducing hourly wages in a workweek to pay employees lower rates when they work extra hours. Further, it’s illegal to pay higher hourly rates to employees who haven’t worked overtime.

Defining Hours Worked

LC 510 requires employers to pay non-exempt employees for extra hours worked. When determining the number of hours worked, your workers’ compensation lawyer will consider the following factors:

  • If you have been permitted to work in that particular work unit
  • Whether the employer has control over your actions when performing the work

The duration you work receiving instructions from your employer is worked hours. You don’t need permission from the employer to work for the time to be deemed hours worked. The critical issue here is that the employer controls your work and schedule.

Inclusion of Bonuses in Your Regular Rate of Pay

When calculating your overtime wages, bonuses can form part of your regular rates if they are non-discretionary. Nondiscretionary bonuses are a form of compensation if they are awarded due to your proficiency, hours worked, production, or an incentive not to leave your job. For this reason, they are used in the computation of your regular pay rate.

Note that incentive bonuses come in the form of flat-sums. To obtain the flat-sum, you divide the bonuses by the number of regular hours during the duration you earned the rewards.

Common Challenges Facing California Overtime Law

Many employers have not complied with overtime laws even after their enactment. Cases of unfair payment of overtime wages in Los Angeles have been on the rise. The most common issues with these laws include:

  • Receiving paid time off in place of overtime pay
  • Overtime for hours spent on-call
  • Unauthorized or off the clockwork
  • Overtime wages for working during rest or meal breaks
  • Travel and commute time
  • Overtime for preparing for work

Dealing With California Overtime Law Violations

If you are a non-exempt employee who works extra hours without receiving overtime wages, you have the right to retrieve the wages. First, you should bring up the issue with your employer and resolve it. When this is not an option, you can file a claim with the court. Also, you can raise the issue with the relevant government agency. However, the best option is to speak to a lawyer with knowledge and experience in overtime and workers’ compensation laws.

When you opt to claim your unpaid overtime wages in court, you should speak to your lawyer first to decide if you want to retrieve the wages under state or federal laws. Although both statutes are intended to protect your rights, pursuing your wages under federal law increases your compensation because the employer might be required to pay double the amount owed as a form of punishment.

On the other hand, California laws will impose a penalty on the employer for late payment. Your lawyer will consider the facts of your case to determine the best option to file a claim.

Find the Right Workers’ Compensation Attorney Near Me

Both California and federal laws provide workers with the right to overtime wages. If you have problems with your overtime wages or the employer has denied you the wages, you have multiple options you can explore. An experienced lawyer can help you recover your wages and damages stemming from the denial of overtime obligations. At The Workers Compensation Lawyer Law Firm, we help clients in Los Angeles, CA, pursue their claims. Call us today at 424-501-9228 to learn more about your rights.