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How is Overtime Calculated in California?

The California Overtime Act of 2020 is designed to promote court compliance. The law requires employers to pay overtime at a rate of 1.5x the employee’s regular rate of pay after 40 hours in a week, or after 8 hours in a day, or after 12 hours on a consecutive day. 

 

Because the California overtime law requires employers to pay workers overtime for work in excess of eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week, it is important to understand the formula to calculate the overtime pay.

 

How is Overtime Calculated?

 

For workers in California, overtime pay is an important benefit that protects workers from being denied overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours in a given week. Overtime pay is required if an employer pays an employee a rate of pay that is less than one and one-half times the employee’s regular rate of pay. Employers are required to calculate their employees’ regular rate of pay by adding up all the employee’s regularly scheduled hours of work, dividing that amount by the total number of regularly scheduled hours in the workweek, and then multiplying that amount by one and one half.

 

California overtime laws are quite complicated. For example, an employee is entitled to overtime for hours worked in excess of eight hours in a single day. Overtime pay is paid at a rate of one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for each hour worked in excess of 40 hours in a workweek.

 

Can Overtime Laws Be Legally Imposed?

 

California employers are not allowed to make employees work overtime without compensation. The law protects employees from any sort of retaliatory actions due to their refusal to work overtime. 

 

The California Labor Code requires employers to provide workers with at least twelve (12) hours of pay for any hours worked in excess of eight (8) hours in a workday. Under the law, employees are entitled to at least three hours of rest in any 24-hour period. If an employer fails to provide any of the above, the law makes it illegal for the employer to do so.

 

Can Employers Terminate Their Employees For Refusing To Work Overtime?

 

Employers may be able to fire workers who refuse to work overtime under certain circumstances. This is known as “constructive discharge”, and it can be used to circumvent the California overtime law. The California overtime law forbids employers from requiring employees to work more than eight hours in a day or more than 40 hours in a week. However, employees are still permitted to voluntarily work more than 40 hours a week.

 

Final Words

 

No matter if the job is in the private or public sector, or the manufacturing or service industries, or construction or farming, or any other industry, California overtime law can significantly increase the take-home salary of the California employees.

 

The California overtime law provides a lot of benefits to the employees. This law is a win-win situation for both the employers and the employees. The law offers the protection to the employees that they deserve. The employees will no longer be exploited by the employers. The employers will not face problems over the violations of the law.

To know more about California Overtime Law, join the Compliance Prime webinar.

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