California Overtime Pay Laws: Rates, Exemptions, and Wage Claims

California overtime pay laws require most non-exempt employees to be paid 1.5 times their regular rate after eight hours in a workday or 40 hours in a workweek, and double their regular rate after 12 hours in a day. The state’s daily trigger is what sets it apart from federal law, which only counts overtime weekly. With the 2026 state minimum wage at $16.90 per hour, the thresholds that decide who qualifies as exempt have moved up too.¹

When Overtime Pay Kicks In

Labor Code Section 510 lays out three situations where a non-exempt worker earns one and one-half times the regular rate:²

Any hour worked beyond eight in a single workday.
Any hour worked beyond 40 in a workweek.
The first eight hours worked on the seventh consecutive day of a workweek.

The triggers don’t stack. If you work a 10-hour Tuesday and later cross 40 hours for the week, the two extra Tuesday hours already counted as overtime and aren’t paid twice.²

Your employer has to lock in a fixed workday and workweek to track the hours. A workday is a consecutive 24-hour period that starts at the same time each calendar day; a workweek is seven consecutive 24-hour periods beginning on the same day each week. These definitions cannot be shifted around to avoid overtime, and hours cannot be averaged across two workweeks.³

When Double Time Applies

California requires twice the regular rate in two circumstances:⁴

Every hour past 12 in a single workday.
Every hour past eight on the seventh consecutive day of a workweek.

Picture a 14-hour shift. The first eight hours are straight time. Hours nine through twelve pay at 1.5x. Hours thirteen and fourteen pay at 2x. The same step-up happens on a seventh straight workday: 1.5x for the first eight hours, 2x for everything after.²

Who Is Covered and Who Is Exempt

The default classification is non-exempt. To treat someone as exempt from overtime under the executive, administrative, or professional categories, an employer has to clear two separate tests.

The duties test looks at what the employee actually does. More than half of their work time has to involve tasks that require discretion and independent judgment. A job title doesn’t settle anything: a “manager” who spends most of the shift stocking shelves or running a register fails this test.

The salary test requires a fixed monthly salary of at least twice the state minimum wage for full-time work. At $16.90 per hour, that comes out to $70,304 a year ($16.90 × 2 × 40 × 52).¹ An employee paid below that is non-exempt, period, even if their duties would otherwise qualify.⁵

Licensed professionals (law, medicine, teaching) can qualify under the professional exemption, but still must meet the salary floor and spend more than half their time on intellectual work that varies in character. Registered nurses cannot be classified as exempt under the professional exemption and must instead individually meet the executive or administrative tests.⁵

Computer Software Employees

There is a separate exemption for computer software work under Labor Code Section 515.5, with its own pay floor. As of January 1, 2026, the employee has to earn at least $58.85 per hour or an annual salary of $122,573.13.⁶ The thresholds adjust each year with the California Consumer Price Index. A salaried software professional earning below that number is non-exempt and gets overtime regardless of what they do.

Calculating Your Regular Rate of Pay

Overtime isn’t just 1.5 times your base hourly wage. It’s 1.5 times your “regular rate of pay,” which pulls in nearly everything you earn for your work.

Shift differentials, piece-rate earnings, commissions, and non-discretionary bonuses tied to productivity, efficiency, or attendance all have to be folded into the regular rate before overtime is calculated.⁴ A bonus promised in advance for hitting a production target or sticking out a busy season is non-discretionary. It counts. A genuinely discretionary payment, like a surprise holiday gift unconnected to hours or output, can be left out.⁷ If a payment appears in an employee handbook, is tied to any metric, or is paid routinely, treat it as non-discretionary.

How you convert that to an hourly figure depends on how you’re paid:⁴

Hourly workers: your hourly rate plus the per-hour value of any additional non-hourly compensation.
Salaried workers: monthly salary × 12 ÷ 52 ÷ 40.
Piece-rate or commission workers: total earnings for the workweek divided by total hours worked. Overtime hours then earn an extra half rate (for 1.5x hours) or an extra full rate (for 2x hours) on top of what was already earned.

A quick example. A worker earns $800 in hourly wages plus a $200 production bonus during a 50-hour week. The regular rate is $1,000 ÷ 50 = $20. The 10 overtime hours earn an additional $10 each (the extra half of $20), so $100 in overtime premium on top of the $1,000 already paid. Using the base hourly wage and ignoring the bonus would underpay the worker and expose the employer to a wage claim.

Alternative Workweek Schedules

California allows employers to adopt alternative workweek schedules that extend the daily overtime threshold. The most common is a 4/10: four 10-hour days. Under a valid alternative schedule, daily overtime starts at 10 hours instead of eight (or up to 12 for certain healthcare workers under specific Industrial Welfare Commission orders).⁸

Adoption requires a secret ballot vote with at least two-thirds approval from affected employees, and the employer must report the results to the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement within 30 days.⁹ Miss any of those steps and the schedule is invalid, meaning every hour past eight reverts to overtime. The 40-hour weekly threshold still applies, and work beyond 12 hours in a day still triggers double time.

What You Can Recover If You’re Underpaid

Unpaid overtime adds up quickly once penalties and interest come in. The Labor Commissioner can issue citations with civil penalties of $50 per underpaid employee per pay period for a first violation and $100 per underpaid employee per pay period for subsequent violations, plus the full amount of unpaid wages.¹⁰

You can also sue. Under Labor Code Section 1194, a successful claim recovers the full unpaid overtime balance plus interest and reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs.¹¹ Section 1194.2 allows liquidated damages equal to the amount of unpaid wages, which effectively doubles the recovery.¹² If an employer willfully withholds wages when you quit or are fired, Section 203 waiting time penalties add your daily wage as a continuing penalty for up to 30 days until payment is made.

How to File a Wage Claim

Claims go to the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, also known as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. You can file online, by email, by mail, or in person at a district office, and there is no filing fee.¹³

After you file, the office investigates and usually schedules a settlement conference where you and the employer try to resolve the dispute. If that doesn’t produce an agreement, a formal hearing follows and a hearing officer reviews evidence and issues a decision.

You have three years from the date of the violation to file a wage claim for unpaid overtime.¹³ Wait longer and you lose the right to recover those wages. Pursuing a claim under California’s Unfair Competition Law can extend the window to four years in some cases, but three years is the standard deadline for a straight overtime claim. Pull together your pay stubs, time records, and any written communications about your schedule before you file; the stronger the paper trail, the stronger the claim.

1
California Department of Industrial Relations. California’s Minimum Wage Set to Increase to $16.90 Per Hour
2
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 510
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Overtime Pay
4
Department of Industrial Relations. Overtime
5
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 515
6
California Department of Industrial Relations. Overtime Exemption for Computer Software Employees
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 56C – Bonuses Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
8
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 511
9
California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 511
10
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 558
11
California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 1194
12
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 1194.2
13
California Department of Industrial Relations. How to File a Wage Claim