Misclassification

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California has some of the best overtime laws in the country. Federal law requires employers to pay overtime to hourly employees when they work more than 40 hours in a workweek, but California law requires employers to pay overtime to hourly employees when they work more than 8 hours in a workday. In addition, California employers have to pay “double-time” to hourly employees when they work more than 12 hours in a workday.

As a result, California employers have to pay overtime to their hourly employees more often than employers in other states do. Many California employers try to avoid paying overtime because it’s expensive for them. The overtime rate is 1.5 times the employee’s regular hourly rate, and the “double-time” rate is 2 times the employee’s regular hourly rate.

One of the most common ways California employers try to avoid paying overtime is to illegally misclassify their employees as salaried “exempt” workers, rather than properly classifying their employees as hourly “non-exempt” workers and paying them overtime. “Exempt” means an employee is exempt from the overtime laws, and “non-exempt” means an employee is not exempt from the overtime laws and is therefore legally entitled to receive overtime pay. Misclassifying employees as salaried “exempt” and not paying them overtime saves companies millions of dollars by robbing those employees of the overtime pay they’re legally entitled to receive.

The exemptions to California’s overtime laws are complex. If you believe you may have been misclassified and deprived of overtime pay, we may be able to take legal action to get you the compensation you deserve. We’d be happy to provide you a free consultation.