Employment Law

If you are a non-exempt employee working in California, you may be entitled to overtime compensation.  In order to determine whether you are being paid the proper amount of overtime compensation, use a step-by-step approach:

First: Identify those hours that must be paid on an overtime basis.  In California, any work in excess of eight (8) hours in one workday and any work in excess of forty (40) hours in one workweek and hours worked on the seventh day of work consititute work that must be paid on an overtime basis.

Second: Determine your “regular rate” of pay.  When calculating overtime pay in California, your “regular rate” of pay is used, not the normal hourly amount.  Generally speaking, “regular rate” is a term used to mean your normal hourly amount plus other types of compensation you may recieve (e.g., bonuses).

Third: Determine the applicable overtime rate of pay.  Any work in excess of eight (8) hours in one workday and any work in excess of forty (40) hours in one workweek and the first eight (8) hours worked on the seventh day of work in any one workweek shall be compensated at the rate of no less than one and one-half times the “regular rate” of pay.  Any work in excess of eight (8) hours on any seventh day of a workweek shall be compensated at the rate of no less than twice the “regular rate” of pay of an employee.  In addition, any work in excess of twelve (12) hours in one day shall be compensated at the rate of no less than twice the “regular rate” of pay for an employee.

Your employer should be providing you with properly itemized wage statements every pay period that you can use to cross-check with your time records.  Then use the step-by-step approach above to determine whether you are being paid the proper amount of overtime compensation.

If you feel you have been improperly denied overtime compensation, contact the attorneys at Haeggquist & Eck LLP.

California law protects a mother’s right to breastfeed by ensuring nursing mothers have time and space to express breast milk at the workplace, and by prohibiting discrimination and harassment on the basis of breastfeeding.

Under California law, “every employer, including the state and any political subdivision, is required to provide a reasonable amount of time to accommodate an employee desiring to express breast milk for the employee’s infant child.” Labor Code §1030. The break should be paid (if the employee is entitled to receive a 10-minute paid rest period under the relevant Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Order). If the employee isn’t entitled to receive a 10-minute rest break, then the break to express breast milk will be unpaid.

The law also requires employers to ensure that the employee has the use of a private area, other than a bathroom, to express breast milk. Employers are only exempt from these requirements if granting such a break would seriously disrupt the operations of the employer.

California law also protects employees from discrimination and harassment based on sex, which includes breastfeeding and pregnancy.

To schedule your free initial consultation, contact us online or call (619) 342-8000 today!

A commonly held myth is, “I am not entitled to overtime pay because I am a ‘manager’.”  However, because you are a “manager,” does not automatically mean you are exempt from overtime and minimum wage compensation.

Under California law, exemptions from statutory mandatory minimum wage and overtime provisions are narrowly construed.  One of the more common categories of exemptions apply to those persons employed in the “administrative, executive, or professional” capacity.  This is the category many employers use to classify “managers” as exempt from the overtime and minimum wage provisions.  The fact that you are a manager is not the test.  Rather, to be exempt under this category, an employee must: (1) be “primarily engaged in duties that meet the test of the exemption; (2) “customarily and regularly exercise discretion and independent judgment in performing those duties; and (3) earn “a monthly salary equivalent to no less than two times the state minimum wage for full-time employment.”

Generally, to qualify for the exemption, the employee’s duties must be directly related to management policies or general business operations of the employer or its customers.   An employee is “primarily engaged” in exempt duties only if more than one half of the employee’s work is devoted to such duties.   With respect to “discretion and independent judgment,” an employee who merely applies his or her skills and knowledge in following prescribed procedures is not exercising “discretion” and “judgment” of the independent sort associated with administrative work.

In short, simply because you have the title of a “manager,” does not mean you are not entitled to certain wage and hour protections, such as overtime and minimum wage compensation.

To schedule your free initial consultation, contact us online or call (619) 342-8000 today!