Employment · California
the short answer
California counts the day as well as the week. Over eight hours in a workday is time and a half, over twelve in a day is double time, and the seventh consecutive day of a workweek is time and a half for the first eight hours and double after that. You can be owed California overtime in a week you never worked forty hours.
source ↗Not yet checked against the statute.
everywhere in the u.s.
in this state
governing statute
source ↗Not yet checked against the statute.
penalty
The unpaid balance of the overtime, with interest, costs of suit and a reasonable attorney's fee — and no agreement to work for a lesser wage is a defence (§ 1194(a)).
source ↗Not yet checked against the statute.
limit
3 years
source ↗Not yet checked against the statute.
free route
The Labor Commissioner's Office takes a wage claim online, by email, by post or in person, and it costs nothing. For overtime you have three years to file it — the same three years as minimum wage, meal and rest breaks and illegal deductions, and longer than the two years the same office allows for an oral promise to pay above minimum wage. It has no jurisdiction over a genuine independent contractor, but it says to file anyway if you think you were misclassified as one.
source ↗Not yet checked against the statute.
small claims limit
$12,500
source ↗Not yet checked against the statute.
exceptions: $6,250 if you are suing as a business rather than as a person.
source ↗Not yet checked against the statute.
also
If the job has already ended, § 203 keeps your wages running as a penalty at the same daily rate from the due date until you are paid, for up to 30 days. That penalty is often larger than the overtime itself.
source ↗Not yet checked against the statute.
your situation
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