California employees in the IT and computer software industry may be entitled to overtime pay...
Federal law and the law in most states requires overtime pay for employees who work more than 40 hours per week unless the employee fits within one of the limited exemptions available under federal or state law. In California, the overtime requirement applies where the employee works more than eight hours in a day or more than 40 hours in a workweek.
For years, employers in California such as Hewlett-Packard Company, Intel Corporation, Apple Computer Inc., Seagate Technology, Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc., Quantum Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Applied Materials, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Silicon Graphics, Inc., National Semiconductor Corporation, 3Com Corporation and Bay Networks, Inc., have allegedly denied overtime wages to IT and computer professionals (computer programmers, computer system analysts, computer programmer analysts, application analysts, software engineer, system engineer, systems specialist, and others holding similar job titles) based on the mistaken impression that these individuals are exempt from the overtime requirements.
Given the job demands on those working in the IT and computer fields and the number of hours these people often work, employers' misclassification of these employees as exempt from overtime has denied many employees substantial amounts of overtime wages owed to them. Some of the biggest names in the technology industry â€" including hardware and software manufacturers, internet companies, and gaming manufacturers â€" and other businesses that employ IT and computer professionals have paid out millions of dollars to current and former employees who filed claims seeking recovery of these wages. IBM and other companies have recently been sued in class action lawsuits filed on behalf of thousands of IT and computer professionals. Yet many employers still fail to pay overtime as required by law, and they face additional lawsuits.
California State Labor Law for Computer Professionals
California State Labor Laws protect computer employees from unpaid overtime. California Labor Code 515.5 or SB 88 states that employees in the computer software field may be exempt from overtime pay if they meet several requirements. One exempt-status requirement involves pay rate: "The employee's hourly rate of pay is not less than forty-seven dollars and eighty-one cents ($47.81), or the annualized full-time salary equivalent of that rate."
If a California computer software employee earns less than $47.81 per hour or the annual salary equivalent of approximately $99,445, they may qualify for overtime pay.
In order to be exempt in California, effective as of January 1, 2008, a full-time employee must be salaried and earn at least $640 per week, or $33,280. The hourly minimum decreased to $36.
Other states have similar laws for computer professionals, though the exempt-requirements and pay rates may differ.
Programmer Overtime Articles
IT Overtime: "We're treated like Serf Laborers"
Information technology (IT) worker Jamie Wells is classified as exempt and therefore is not entitled to overtime. "I'm paid a salary, which just means that our employer can work us as much as he wants," says Wells. He was working 70-80 hours per week as an operations analyst in an eyeglass firm; IT overtime was never even mentioned, for fear of retaliation.
Big Business Fights Back Over Information Technology Overtime Claims
Information technologists, otherwise known as IT workers, have been taking big businesses to court to recover unpaid IT overtime wages for quite a few years now. They have been remarkably successful. IT workers have started class actions against high tech giants like IBM and Sun Microsystems, Inc., and many of these class actions have already brought about huge settlements.
Million-dollar settlement in Unpaid IT Overtime Lawsuit
Universal Music Group IT Workers Start Class Action for Overtime Pay
IT Overtime Abuse
Programmer Overtime: Time to Change the Law
Overworked and Underpaid: Portrait of a California IT Worker
Overtime: Not All States are Created Equally
I.T. Overtime: California Dreamin'
Computer Programmer Overtime: All in a Day's Pay
IT Overtime California - Companies Make Money Off Employee Overtime
Programmer Overtime in the News
MAY-31-07: A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of current and former Cadence Systems Engineers claiming that they were misclassified as exempt from
overtime pay. The lawsuit seeks class action status on behalf of systems administrators, network technicians, and other technical staff. [
MARKETWATCH: COMPUTER PROGRAMMER OVERTIME]
FEB-28-07: Nearly half IT professionals work more than their contracted hours without overtime pay. [
ZDNET: PROGRAMMER UNPAID OVERTIME]
AUG-15-06: The dark side of H-1B programmers -
overtime hours without pay and no green card. [
INFO WORLD:UNPAID OVERTIME]
APR-26-06: Programmers get
$14.9 settlement from Electronic Arts for unpaid overtime claims. [
CMP GAME GROUP: UNPAID OVERTIME SETTLEMENT]
California IT Overtime Legal Help
If you are a current or former employee in the IT, computer or software profession in California and you have worked more than eight hours per day or more than 40 hours per week but have not been paid overtime, you may be entitled to unpaid wages, overtime, interest and related amounts. Click on the link below to submit your overtime complaint.
