Los Angeles Employment Lawyer Blog

It may be illegal for your employer to withhold wages or refuse to pay you overtime for over eight (8) hours of work per day or forty (40) hours per week. California law provides even more protection than federal laws by both raising the minimum wage, providing higher overtime wage profits, and protecting more classes of workers. The law states that all non-exempt employees must be paid overtime (at a rate of not less than time and one half of their regular rate) for working more than 40 hours in one week (seven days in a row). In order to determine whether or not an employee is eligible for overtime pay, an employer first must classify the employee as “exempt” or “non-exempt". In order to determine which category an employee falls under, an employer needs to look at the job title, pay and specific job duties. According to the California Department of Industrial Relations, “general overtime provisions are that a nonexempt employee 18 years of age or older, or any minor employee 16 or 17 years of age who is not required by law to attend school and is not otherwise prohibited by law from engaging in the subject work, shall not be employed more than eight hours in any workday or more than 40 hours in any workweek unless he or she receives one and one-half times his or her regular rate of pay for all hours worked over eight hours in any workday and over 40 hours in the workweek.”

While many people assume that an exempt employee is salaried and a non-exempt employee is hourly, this is not necessarily the case. Even managerial positions that are salaried may qualify for overtime pay for hours over 40 per week. Exemptions are classes of workers that do not have the same overtime pay qualifications. These are very specific classes of workers from taxicab drivers to computer software employees. However, most employees do qualify for overtime pay, especially for over 40 hours of work in a week. Misclassifying a non-exempt employee as exempt can result in owing an employee expensive overtime pay.

If you have not been receiving your overtime pay, you have lost wages from your employer, or you are not receiving the correct amount of overtime wages that California Law protects, call the Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help.