You don’t need to work 40+ hours for overtime in California

Those who move to California for work are sometimes unaware of how overtime laws work here. After all, in other states, you generally have to reach 40 hours before you start getting overtime. If you work 42 hours during the week, for example, you get paid for 40 hours at your standard rate and two hours at time and a half.

California also mandates that overtime be paid at time and a half, but it starts much sooner. This is because California law considers eight hours to be a workday. Any time an employee exceeds eight hours, they deserve overtime pay. It doesn’t matter if they have accumulated 40 hours during the week. Even if someone only worked one day a week, but they put in 10 hours, they would deserve two hours of overtime pay.

You may even be eligible for double pay

On top of that, when workers exceed 12 hours in a single day, they should be paid at double their standard rate. Once again, they don’t have to reach 40 hours to hit this threshold.

For instance, imagine a worker who is only on the job on Mondays. However, they have to work a 16-hour shift every Monday. They would get their standard rate for the first eight hours. They would then be paid time and a half between eight and 12 hours. For the final four hours of their workday, from 12 hours to 16 hours, they would be paid double their standard rate.

In other states, they would simply be paid their standard rate for the entire 16 hours, and they would never be eligible for overtime. This sometimes means that workers don’t realize they’re being shortchanged and their boss isn’t paying them enough. If you believe you haven’t been paid properly under California’s specific laws, be sure you know what legal steps to take.