If you are a California employee or employer, it is likely that the state?s overtime laws will impact you at some point. Under California law, an employee is entitled to overtime pay for all hours over 8 that the employee works in a given day and/or all hours over 40 that the employee works in a given week. If an employee is to be paid overtime, it is to be in accordance with the following:
- One and one-half times the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 8 hours up to and including 12 hours in any workday, and for the first 8 hours worked on the 7th consecutive day of work.
- Two times the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 12 hours in any workday and for all hours worked in excess of 8 on the 7th consecutive day of work.
?Regular rate? is defined as either the employee?s hourly wages (if the employee is an hourly employee), or if the employee is a salaried employee, according to the following calculation:
- Multiply the monthly remuneration by 12 (months) to get the annual salary.
- Divide the annual salary by 52 (weeks) to get the weekly salary.
- Divide the weekly salary by the number of legal maximum regular hours (40) to get the regular hourly rate.
If you are a California employee and believe that you should be getting paid overtime, you have legal remedies. You can either file a claim with the California Labor Commissioner or you can file a lawsuit in court. If a lawsuit is filed, employees are eligible to get their overtime pay–in addition to their attorney?s fees and costs.
It?s not always an easy determination as to whether a California employee is entitled to overtime pay. There can be exemptions, such as the professional exemption or administrative exemption, which allow the employer to legally not pay the employee overtime. The overtime exemptions are very fact-intensive and require analysis by a qualified employment attorney. Moreover, if you are an independent contractor in Los Angeles, you are also not entitled to overtime. However, sometimes, independent contractors are misclassified and are actually employees, thus being eligible for overtime.
One of our labor and employment lawyers can assess your situation and determine whether you are indeed eligible for overtime or whether you are validly exempt from the overtime laws. Contact Beverly Hills Law Corp., PC for a free consultation.
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