How Much is California Overtime Pay?

California has some of the most generous overtime laws in the country. In California, employers are required to pay most employees overtime if they work more than 40 hours in a work week or eight hours in a day.

Employees should be aware of the legal requirements for overtime pay so they can be sure they are receiving the required compensation for their work and take advantage of California’s overtime laws. This involves knowing how much overtime pay workers should be paid.

Do salaried workers get California overtime pay?

All employees that are not officially categorized as exempt from overtime are eligible for overtime. Even if workers are salaried, they are entitled to overtime if they are not classified as exempt. 

Who is exempt from California overtime pay?

The largest group of people who are exempt from receiving overtime pay in California are executives, administrative and other professionals who earn at least twice the minimum wage in California. So, people earning at least $45,760 may be considered exempt because this is twice the minimum wage.

For example, an employee is considered an executive if they are primarily engaged in executive, administrative, or professional duties. In most cases, “primarily” executive means that an employee spends at least five percent of their time on executive or other types of tasks. This exception is colloquially known as the “white-collar exemption.” 

In other cases, an administrative employee can be classified as exempt if they regularly use their independent judgement and discretion in the course of their work.

How much is California overtime pay?

Overtime pay is most commonly thought to be one and a half times the regular rate of pay. However, there are instances in which employers must pay more than that amount in overtime pay. California’s Department of Industrial Relations describes the requirements on its website.

California law requires that employers pay workers one and a half times their regular rate of pay for the first eight hours worked on the seventh consecutive day of work in a work week.

Additionally, workers are entitled to double their regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 12 hours in any single workday, and double their rate of pay for all hours worked above eight on the seventh consecutive day in a workweek.

In some areas of employment, overtime laws can differ. In 2019, California law was changed in such a way that granted benefits to more people. One group that may be affected by this change are farmers. Per the requirements of the new law, frameworks who work nine and a half hours in a single work day or over 55 hours in a week are entitled to overtime.

This is an increase from the previous requirement that stated that farm workers who work more than 10 hours in a day or 60 hours in a week were eligible for overtime, says Capital Public Radio. 

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