Employment Attorney in San Diego | The Larabee Law Firm

You depend on your income, and you deserve every last dollar you earn. Unfortunately, despite strict penalties, failure to pay overtime is one of the most common wage violations made by employers in California. If your employer has failed to pay you the overtime you deserve, a San Diego employment attorney can help you recover the unpaid wages you’re entitled to.

California Overtime & Break Laws

In California, employers are required to pay overtime when an employee works a certain amount of hours in a workday or workweek, or if an employee works seven days in a row. Specifically, overtime is due to:

• Employees who work more than 8 hours in a workday (paid at 1.5 times their regular hourly wage)

• Employees who work more than 40 hours in a workweek (paid at 1.5 times their regular hourly wage)

• An employee who works 7 consecutive days (paid at time and half for the first 8 hours; paid double time for all hours beyond that)

• Employees who work more than 12 hours in a workday (paid at double time)

A California employee who works more than five hours in a workday is entitled to an unpaid, off-duty 30-minute meal break. Employees must also be offered a 10-minute rest period for every four hours of work. These laws are routinely violated by employers who make employees work through lunch or clock out for breaks. If you have been denied the appropriate break periods, we can help you recover back pay and penalties for these violations.

Who does not qualify for overtime pay?

Overtime pay laws apply to all hourly and salaried workers whether the overtime was authorized or not – unless they meet all of the specific duty requirements of one of California's overtime pay exemptions. An exemption means the overtime laws do not apply to a particular classification of employees.

Generally, exempt workers include managers and assistant managers. However, an employee’s job title does not automatically make him or her exempt. The law looks at the actual work performed by the person as opposed to their title. For example,

• Does the manager supervise people?

• If so, how many and for what percentage of their time?

• Is the manager required to use discretion or independent judgment?

At the Larabee Law Firm, we will thoroughly investigate your situation to determine if you should be paid overtime. If you are being cheated from money that you worked for, we will pursue the compensation that you deserve.

California Penalties for Overtime & Breaks

In addition to the actual wages an employee is owed for unpaid overtime, he or she may also be entitled to penalty fees paid by the employer. In California, an employee who is terminated or who quits and gives at least 72 hour’s notice is entitled to receive his or her final paycheck immediately. If the final check is late or doesn’t include all of the wages owed, including overtime pay, the employee may be entitled to waiting time penalties. For every day an employer is late, the employee is entitled to a full day of wages at his or her normal rate for up to 30 days.

California also requires an employer to provide information about an employee’s rate, hours worked, and deductions on his or her pay stub. Failing to provide accurate information, which would be the case if the employer failed to pay overtime, results in a $50 penalty for the first violation and $100 for each additional violation up to a maximum penalty of $4,000. An employment attorney can help you sort the facts and determine how much you are owed in back pay as well as payment for any penalties.