California Hospital Employee Labor Laws Mean Workers are Eligible for Overtime Pay

If you’re a health care worker in California, you are covered by hospital employee labor laws.

You may qualify to participate in a lawsuit investigation if you work in a hospital and have experienced California employment law violations within the past two to three years.

Hospital employee labor laws are complicated because of the variety of jobs and professions that sometimes require advanced degrees or certifications.

Non-exempt employees are paid an hourly wage, which makes them eligible for overtime pay. Exempt employees are paid an annual salary, which means they are paid the same amount every week no matter how many or how few hours they work.

However, many workers in the health care setting are eligible for overtime pay, according to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The following health care workers are eligible for overtime pay in most cases:

• Administrative assistants
• X-ray technicians
• Ultrasound technicians
• Respiratory therapists
• Certified nursing assistants
• Case managers
• Surgical technicians
• Janitors
• Food service workers

California Hospital Employee Labor Laws: Breaks and Overtime Pay

Everyone knows a hospital is such a busy place that it’s sometimes difficult for every employee to take a scheduled break or lunch period. If a lunch period is missed, the employee must agree in writing to missing the lunch period and the time must be paid.

In California, non-exempt employees are entitled to a 30-minute off-duty lunch period if they work more than five hours in a work day.

They also are entitled to a 10-minute break for every four hours of work. When an employee works more than 10 hours in one day, the employee is entitled to a second 30-minute meal period.

Hospitals have a reputation for automatically deducting meal breaks from time sheets, but hospitals could be breaking the law if the meal periods are not truly being taken every single day by every single non-exempt employee.

By automatically deducting meal periods, the hospital is not allowing for the times when you are interrupted by work duties and forced to return to work before the non-paid meal period is over.

California hospital employee labor laws also require employers to pay overtime at the rate of one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for each hour worked over eight hours in one day, or any time worked more than 40 hours in an individual work week.

California state labor laws also require an employee receive one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for the initial eight hours worked on the seventh consecutive day of work in a work week.

The employee should receive double the regular rate of pay for all hours beyond 12 hours in any single work day and for all the hours worked beyond eight hours on the seventh consecutive day of work in a work week.

Don’t let your health care employer take advantage of you. If you live in California and work in a health care setting where you believe hospital employee labor laws have been violated, you could be eligible to participate in this lawsuit investigation.

Join a Free California Wage & Hour Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were forced to work off the clock or without overtime pay within the past 3 years in California, you have rights – and you don’t have to take on the company alone.

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