Overtime Wage and Hours Dispute

One of the most common wage and hour disputes between employers and employees in California pertain to overtime pay.

A lot of employers accidentally or sometimes purposely misclassify employees as exempt in order to avoid paying overtime.

Exempt or Non-Exempt

Exempt employees are not entitled to overtime pay while non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime pay for any work done after the required 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week.

Employees can be classified as exempt or non exempt, depending on their work activities and not their position.

If the employee performs production work for the company for at least 50 percent of his time, then the employee is non exempt regardless if the position title is manager.

Exemption rules can be complicated as there are various conditions that can make an employee exempt.

Some of the most common exemptions are:

• Executive - Refers to employees who spend half their time running departments or the business itself.

• Administrative - Refers to employees who spend half their working hours assisting executives or performing administrative functions.

• Professional - Refers to workers who need licenses to practice like lawyers, doctors, etc. It also covers those who work in a "learned or artistic" profession.

• Computer Software Professional - Refers to employees who work in the highly theoretical aspects of Information Technology and makes more than $41 an hour.

• Outside Sales Person - Refers to employees who work away from the office making sales.

Calculating Overtime Pay

Under California law, each hour worked outside the required 40 hours per week must be paid one and one-half times the employee's regular rate.

Other Benefits

Aside from overtime pay, non exempt employees are also entitled to the following benefits under California law.

• Lunch and Meal Breaks

Non exempt employees must also receive a 30 minute meal break when they work in excess of 5 hours.

During this break, the employee must be relieved of all duties and should not be working at all.

If an employer fails to provide this break, the employee can recover one hour of pay at their regular rate for every day that they are not provided with the meal break.

• Rest Break

Under California law, employees are also entitled to a rest break if they work for over three hours and one-half hours a day.

The breaks should be in between work periods and should be 10 minutes per four hours worked.

• Vested Vacation Pay

Vacation time is earned proportional to the length that labor is rendered. Upon termination of employment, the employee is entitled to a prorated percentage of the vested vacation pay.

Getting Help

If you have hours and wages dispute as a result of misclassification or any other reasons, you can try to recover up until 4 years after.

You should consult an employment law attorney for legal advice.

To help you deal with employment cases such as wage and hours dispute, consult with our expert employment law attorneys. Log on to our website and dial our toll free number for legal assistance.