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California Overtime Violations
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By Jane Mundy
Does your employer owe you for unpaid overtime? Whether you''re eligible for overtime pay depends on whether you''re considered exempt or non-exempt. However, your employer might classify you as "exempt,"but according to overtime pay laws, you still may be eligible based on your actual job responsibilities. California overtime law violations include unpaid overtime for working extra hours or for work done "off the clock,"and not being given or compensated for meal breaks.
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California Overtime Laws

Double-time: two (2) times an employee' regular rate of pay for hours worked over twelve (12) hours in a workday, or for hours worked over eight (8) hours on the seventh day of the workweek.
If an employee works seven consecutive days, he or she must be paid 1.5 times the usual rate for the first eight hours worked on the seventh consecutive workday, and double time for any hours worked over eight hours on the seventh workday.
Minimum Wage
As of January 2016, in the state of California, minimum wage is $10 per hour, and more in some cities. For instance, San Francisco minimum wage is now $12.25 per hour, increasing to $13.00 per hour on July 1, 2016. San Jose is $10.30 per hour, Oakland is $12.55 per hour, and San Diego is $10.50 per hour. Some employers may find this increase in hourly pay rate difficult but it is the law for everyone, including illegal immigrants (see Outdoor Workers below).
Overtime & Bonuses
Meal Breaks & Rest Breaks

If an employee works more than 10 hours a day, a second meal period of not less than 30 minutes is required. If the total of hours worked is no more than 12 hours, the second meal period may be waived by mutual consent of the employer and employee only if the first meal period was not waived.
Rest Breaks: California labor law requires that non-exempt workers receive a 10-minute paid rest period for every four hours worked. It is recommended that the rest period be in the middle of the work period. If an employer does not provide a rest break, California labor law states that the employer shall pay the employee one hour of pay at the employee' regular rate of pay for each workday that the rest period is not provided.
Exempt Employees & Misclassification
With new state regulations each year and with a new California minimum wage pay law established in 2014, employers often misclassify employees as exempt, intentionally or accidentally, to avoid paying costly overtime wages.

One test to determine eligibility for overtime pay is the "duties test"— assessing the actual work being done rather than only job titles or written job descriptions. An employee must be doing work that is mainly administrative, professional or executive in nature to be exempt from overtime.
To be Exempt as an Administrative Employee: an employee must perform non-manual work as his or her primary duty, directly related to management policies, or general business operations, or perform work in educational administration.
To be Exempt as a Professional Employee: an employee' primary duties must consistently involve discretion and judgment, and work which is predominantly intellectual and varied.
To Be Exempt as an Executive Employee: an employee must regularly direct the work of two or more other full-time employees, and have management as his/her "primary duty." An exempt employee must also make over a certain amount of money a year, and must be paid salary. Exempt employees are not eligible for overtime pay, meal and rest period requirements, uniform requirements, and other protections of the Industrial Welfare Commission Orders.
Some employees are either accidentally or purposely misclassified as exempt from overtime pay. Either way, if they have been misclassified as exempt from overtime pay, they still deserve to be paid overtime and they deserve compensation for unpaid overtime.
Domestic Workers
As of January 2014, The California Bill of Rights (AB 241) extended overtime protections to domestic service employees (also known as personal attendants) who care for and support individuals and families in California.
Domestic workers are due time-and-a-half (overtime pay) for any work performed beyond nine hours in a day or beyond 45 hours in a week. All domestic workers are eligible for this overtime pay rate with the exception of babysitters under the age of 18 or individuals who work irregularly or intermittently as babysitters.
Prior to January 2014, domestic service employees were not covered by California''s overtime provisions.
Outdoor Workers, Including Illegal Immigrants
Individuals employed in agriculture and outdoor work such as landscaping and farming are now legally entitled to sufficient rest breaks (minimum five minutes in the shade) when temperatures exceed 85 degrees Fahrenheit. This new law applies to everyone, including illegal immigrants, who now have a number of rights and protections under Bill 263.
Bill No. 263 prohibits an employer from engaging in "unfair immigration-related practices"when an employee asserts protected rights under the Labor Code. For instance, if you are an illegal immigrant and complain to your employer that you are not receiving minimum wage ($9 per hour as of July 2014), your employer may not threaten to report you to immigration authorities. An employer who violates the new California labor laws and California overtime laws is liable for a civil penalty not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000) per employee for each violation of this section.
The California Labor Code § 226.7 prohibits employers from requiring employees to work during meal or rest periods. If an employee does not receive the proper meal and rest periods, including the new "recovery periods"or "cool down period afforded an employee to prevent heat illness,"the employer must pay to the employee one hour of pay as a penalty. Employers are advised to review California OSHA recommendations to preventing heat illness.
California Managers
earn at least two times the minimum wage (approximately $28,000 per year)
perform duties not also performed by non-exempt workers for at least half of their daily work (cannot do the same work as non-managers 50% or more of the time)
As of July 1, 2014, to qualify for a "white collar"exemption, an employee must earn an annual salary of at least $37,440, and beginning January 1, 2016, an annual salary of at least $41,600.
Retail and Restaurant Assistant Managers
If you are an Assistant Manager, Assistant Store Manager, Co-Manager, Assistant Retail Manager, or are in a similar assistant manager job position and do not get paid for working overtime, you may be owed overtime back pay for being wrongfully misclassified as an exempt employee.
Many major US retailers have misclassified assistant managers as exempt. If you are a current or former assistant manager at a retail outlet, including Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Rite-Aid, or dozens of other major retailers, you may be owed back pay for being wrongfully misclassified as an exempt employee.
California Property Managers
California IT & Computer Engineers

According to the California Department of Industrial Relations, "computer professional"exempt employees must mainly perform intellectual or creative work that requires independent judgment in the design, development, documentation, analysis, creation, testing, or modification of systems, programs, software or hardware. Beginning January 1, 2014, employers will have to pay their computer professionals at least $84,130.53 a year ($7,010.88 monthly) to qualify for the exemption, up from the 2013 rate of $83,132.93.
This is an increase from $38.89 or more an hour ($81,026.25 or more annually, or $6752.19 or more monthly) in 2012.
An exempt employee must spend at least 50 percent of his or her time performing what are considered "exempt"duties to qualify as exempt. The legislation states: "the individual must be highly skilled, with proficiency in the theoretical and practical application of highly specialized systems analysis, programming and software engineering."
Therefore, high-tech employees who are mainly troubleshooting accounts, or installing, testing, or configuring technology products based on given requirements may be eligible for unpaid IT overtime lawsuits.
California Quality Assurance Engineer Overtime
In California, Quality Assurance (QA) Engineers are often misclassified as exempt from overtime. If the duties they perform regularly are routine, repetitive, automated, or are not intellectually varied in nature, they may be due to be paid overtime. In the last decade, a California law affecting most computer programmers eliminated overtime and set a minimum wage for these workers, but there are still exceptions.
California Test Engineers Unpaid Overtime
Test Engineers (TE) who perform the repetitive and automated tasks common to this job are likely eligible for overtime. Many Test Engineer overtime lawsuits have succeeded, and TE paid less than $38.89 an hour (in 2012) are more likely to require overtime pay.
California Nurses Overtime
Even nurse scabs covering for California nurses on strike over overtime pay are experiencing overtime violations.
California Bank Center Staff (local kiosks)
California Call Center Workers
The California class-action lawsuits allege that, if you are required and/or permitted to come into work early so you can be completely logged into your computer and the necessary programs before the official start of your shift, then you should be paid overtime pay for that pre-shift work time. As well, you should also be paid overtime pay if you have to stay after your scheduled shift to log out of your system. These class action lawsuits typically cover call center employees in the last four years and currently.
Donning and Doffing Violations
In addition to uniforms and safety gear, some employees at restaurants are required to come in 15 minutes early to learn about the day's specials, set tables and taste food so they can recommend it to customers. Although this time is required for work—and although it benefits the employer—in some companies such time is unpaid, meaning workers are giving up an extra 15 minutes per shift for the benefit of their employer. For employees who work full-time, that extra 15 minutes per shift is unpaid overtime, and over the course of a year, that unpaid overtime could add up to hundreds of dollars of unpaid work.
A lawsuit has reportedly been filed against Bloomin' Brands, Inc, owner of Outback Steakhouse, alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. the lawsuit alleges the company required employees to perform unpaid work prior to shifts, refused breaks and failed to pay for mandatory meetings and training sessions.
Bloomin' Brands has denied the allegations.
California Overtime Lawyer
If you work in California and you feel that you are owed overtime pay, you may qualify for damages or remedies that may be awarded in a possible unpaid overtime class action or lawsuit. Click on the link below to submit your Unpaid Overtime complaint.
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CALIFORNIA OVERTIME LAWSUITS
- Bridgenex LLC Faces Overtime Class Action
- California Call Centers alleging unpaid hours for call center employees in California.
- Bank of America Workers Sue for Overtime
- Quality Assurance Engineer alleging unpaid overtime in California.
CALIFORNIA OVERTIME LEGAL ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS
Revel Systems to Settle California Unpaid Wages Lawsuit for $2.75 Million
Oakland, CA The District Court for the Northern District of California has approved a settlement in a class action California unpaid wages lawsuit. In the lawsuit, Bisaccia v. Revel Systems, a group of inside sales representatives claim that Revel Systems, Inc. (Revel) failed to pay overtime wages as required under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Under the terms of the settlement, a group of 149 plaintiffs will share a total of $2.75 million.
Revel sells a cloud-based Point of Sale (POS) system. Restaurants, retail stores and other enterprises throughout the world use it because, in part, it integrates with Apple’s iPad. The POS system tracks sales, inventory and includes payroll and customer relationship management features.
Joseph Bisaccia worked for Revel as a Sales Executive out of Revel’s office in Tempe, Arizona where he cold-called potential buyers. Revel also provided him with leads to follow in an effort to make sales. Revel employs many inside sales representatives to work in a similar capacity.
Between 2014 and 2017, Bisaccia and other sales reps claim that they were pressured to meet ambitious monthly sales goals that could not be achieved within the limits of a 40-hour workweek. He worked, on average, two to six hours of overtime every week. In addition, he and other plaintiffs typically worked overtime hours on weekends, either from Revel’s office or from home, where they took and made calls to potential customers. It was nonstop hustle.
Revel routinely provided meals to inside sales representatives so that they could work through lunch breaks. In addition, the company required inside salespersons to work overtime during the last week of each month in order to meet the company’s sales quotas. For example, during the workweek ending on October 30, 2016, Bisaccia estimated that he worked 55 hours. He was, however, not compensated for any of the overtime hours he worked in that week or in any previous workweek.
Instead, Revel misrepresented to the sales representatives that they were exempt from minimum wage and overtime protections under FLSA. Rather than pay Bisaccia and other inside salespersons one and one-half times their regular hourly rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a given workweek, Revel paid only the regular hourly rate. During the period of time in question, the company kept no records of actual hours worked.
As a general principle, the FLSArequires employers to pay an overtime premium of one and a half times the employee’s regular rate for all hours worked in excess of 40 within a workweek and to also pay at least the minimum wage for all hours worked. However, the law also establishes certain exceptions to these requirements. The workers not protected by overtime laws are referred to as ”exempt.”
The legal issue in many overtime lawsuits is whether a job fits within one of those exceptions. If not, then an employer must comply with the FLSA minimum wage and overtime requirements. Commissioned sales employees seem to present a particular puzzle to employers.
Inside salespeople are those who do not leave the office to make sales. These are the workers who try to make sales over the telephone, internet or by mail. They know the “click” of the dreaded auto dialer. They are generally covered by overtime protections.
Outside salespeople customarily work away from the employer’s place of business. They have more control over their time and conditions of employment and are usually not entitled to earn overtime.
Whether a worker is an inside or an outside salesperson depends on the job duties performed, rather than a particular title. A common mistake many employers make is to treat all commissioned salespeople as exempt employees. It may be a particularly tempting to do so because not having to pay overtime may save an employer on payroll.
This is not one of those situations that makes new law. Although the determination of whether an employee works in an inside sales capacity or an outside sales capacity can be very fact-specific, the law is not new or unclear. Nonetheless, violations of this provision of the FLSA remain quite common.
Commissioned salespeople who usually work from their employer’s place of business and do the hard work of cold-calling and following employer-provided leads to sell the employer’s goods or services are likely entitled to be paid overtime for hours beyond a 40-hour workweek. The settlement in Bisaccia is a reminder of this basic rule.
READ MORE
Workers Win California Unpaid Wages Lawsuit over Shift Call-Ins
Los Angeles, CA It is clear that workers who show up for a shift but are then told to go home because there is not enough work are entitled to wages under California law. The decision in Ward v. Tilly’s, a recent California unpaid wages lawsuit takes it a step further. If you have to call before your scheduled shift is to begin to find out if you really should go in, then you are entitled to wages for a portion of your shift, even if the answer is “no.”
READ MORE
Northern California Horse Training Facilities Busted for Wage and Hour Violations and Inhumane Workers’ Housing
READ MORE

April 12, 2019
All in a day’s work
Revel sells a cloud-based Point of Sale (POS) system. Restaurants, retail stores and other enterprises throughout the world use it because, in part, it integrates with Apple’s iPad. The POS system tracks sales, inventory and includes payroll and customer relationship management features.
Joseph Bisaccia worked for Revel as a Sales Executive out of Revel’s office in Tempe, Arizona where he cold-called potential buyers. Revel also provided him with leads to follow in an effort to make sales. Revel employs many inside sales representatives to work in a similar capacity.
High pressure sales quotas, no overtime
Between 2014 and 2017, Bisaccia and other sales reps claim that they were pressured to meet ambitious monthly sales goals that could not be achieved within the limits of a 40-hour workweek. He worked, on average, two to six hours of overtime every week. In addition, he and other plaintiffs typically worked overtime hours on weekends, either from Revel’s office or from home, where they took and made calls to potential customers. It was nonstop hustle.
Revel routinely provided meals to inside sales representatives so that they could work through lunch breaks. In addition, the company required inside salespersons to work overtime during the last week of each month in order to meet the company’s sales quotas. For example, during the workweek ending on October 30, 2016, Bisaccia estimated that he worked 55 hours. He was, however, not compensated for any of the overtime hours he worked in that week or in any previous workweek.
Instead, Revel misrepresented to the sales representatives that they were exempt from minimum wage and overtime protections under FLSA. Rather than pay Bisaccia and other inside salespersons one and one-half times their regular hourly rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a given workweek, Revel paid only the regular hourly rate. During the period of time in question, the company kept no records of actual hours worked.
Are inside sales employees protected by overtime laws?
As a general principle, the FLSA
The legal issue in many overtime lawsuits is whether a job fits within one of those exceptions. If not, then an employer must comply with the FLSA minimum wage and overtime requirements. Commissioned sales employees seem to present a particular puzzle to employers.
Inside salespeople are those who do not leave the office to make sales. These are the workers who try to make sales over the telephone, internet or by mail. They know the “click” of the dreaded auto dialer. They are generally covered by overtime protections.
Outside salespeople customarily work away from the employer’s place of business. They have more control over their time and conditions of employment and are usually not entitled to earn overtime.
Whether a worker is an inside or an outside salesperson depends on the job duties performed, rather than a particular title. A common mistake many employers make is to treat all commissioned salespeople as exempt employees. It may be a particularly tempting to do so because not having to pay overtime may save an employer on payroll.
Why is the overtime settlement important?
This is not one of those situations that makes new law. Although the determination of whether an employee works in an inside sales capacity or an outside sales capacity can be very fact-specific, the law is not new or unclear. Nonetheless, violations of this provision of the FLSA remain quite common.
Commissioned salespeople who usually work from their employer’s place of business and do the hard work of cold-calling and following employer-provided leads to sell the employer’s goods or services are likely entitled to be paid overtime for hours beyond a 40-hour workweek. The settlement in Bisaccia is a reminder of this basic rule.
READ MORE
Workers Win California Unpaid Wages Lawsuit over Shift Call-Ins

April 8, 2019
READ MORE
Northern California Horse Training Facilities Busted for Wage and Hour Violations and Inhumane Workers’ Housing

April 3, 2019
Oakland, CA: A Northern California owner and operator of two horse training facilities--Portola Valley Training Center in Menlo Park and Gilroy Gaits in Hollister, doing business as EWC & Associates Inc.—has been reigned in by federal court and ordered to pay $1,270,683 to 30 employees for several work visa program violations and California labor law violations.READ MORE
MORE CALIFORNIA OVERTIME LEGAL NEWS
- Jamba Juice Feels the Squeeze in California Unpaid Wages Lawsuit
- California Misclassified Independent Contractors Settle for Employee Status—is it the Right Choice?
- Trouble ahead for California trucker wage lawsuits?
- Underground Economy Keeping California’s Field Enforcers Busy
- Hewlett-Packard Enterprises Named in Gender Pay Discrimination Lawsuit

READER COMMENTS
Blanca Arias
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Gracias por su repuesta.
JM
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James Romero
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I work for a warehouse in the shipping dept. Non-professional, non-administrative, and non-executive. I print labels for the boxes that are sent out. I work from 8:30 to 5:pm Every day, but almost every day I work 15 minutes over due to waiting for the parcel services to arrive. This is not EVERYDAY but a majority of time. Understanding that California has the Daily standard of working over on an 8 hour day, does this entitle me to receive lost overtime pay. Payroll has been done by someone who left for about 2 to 3 months (whom does not pay the overtime of 8 hour days) someone new came in and paid the overtime for time over 8 days. The previous payroll individual has come back and now back to not paying the overtime over an 8 hour day. So my question gain all in all, is am I entitled to receive the compensation for this? Thank you for your time. My apologies for it being so lengthy.
Nina
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Small but mighty
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Also, night time I have to get up at least once, but sometimes even three times. But, the agency (and the family) do not willing to pay any amount "because it is your sleeping time" - and I have to pay for my bed.
Where is the truth?
Jay
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Ashley
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Derrick. E.
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Mimi Beckerman
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Unknown
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don
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Victor Pando
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adrian
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Lora Winkler
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Philip
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Jeremy
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john pennington
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Anonymous
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California
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California
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We have four guys ready to give hours worked without fair overtime. We were forced to sign payroll sheets with only 40 hours, or we would be laid off.
South Carolina
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California
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California
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California
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Alabama
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Anonymous
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My boss asked me to work late but never told me that the time clock was encrypted and that I would not be paid overtime because the clock was encrypted with a strict schedule of 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. This vocational school has two sites that I work at. One site has the encrypted clock and the other has an old fashioned time clock with a punch card (please note this time clock is usually wrong).
Another item of extreme interest is their claim to review you and give health benefits after your first 90 days. I did not get a 90 day review and was told my health benefits could not kick in until 110 days.
Something is rotten in Denmark. What should I do? The rotten economy is contributing to employers having strangle holds on employees
California
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My first experience with a limo company
was as described above and that company owner never indicated on my check stubs if a client left any tip for me,
then when I received my tax forms, there was a W-2 and a 1099 form showing my tips totaling $4,308.00 as non employee income, I ended up being late filing my taxes because of that. I had to file extra paperwork so the IRS could determine if I was an employee or independent contractor.
After that experience, I agree with another former employee of that company that I remained friends with who says that dude is just right for an uppercut!
California
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California
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California
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California
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Additionally, though I am a retail store manager, I work well over my 88 required hours due to the copious amounts of work asked of me.
In my job description I am told that I must be on the sales floor 90% of the time.
This leaves little to no time to do actual managerial duties at work during normal hours.
When asked about my overtime pay I was told that I am paid for 88 hours always and it does not matter if I work more. They will not pay me. They also stated that I am NOT eligible for overtime EVER.
California
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