Los Angeles Overtime Pay Laws: Eligibility, Claims, and Recovery

Under Los Angeles overtime pay laws, you earn 1.5 times your regular hourly rate for any hours beyond eight in a day or 40 in a week, and double your rate after 12 hours in a day. California counts overtime on a daily basis, not just weekly, so a long shift can trigger overtime even during a short week. Most workers in the city qualify, the burden is on the employer to prove otherwise, and you have three years to file a free claim with the state Labor Commissioner if you’ve been underpaid.¹

When Overtime Kicks In

California Labor Code Section 510 sets two tiers of overtime, and both track daily and weekly hours.¹

Time-and-a-half applies to hours beyond eight in a workday, hours beyond 40 in a workweek, and the first eight hours worked on the seventh consecutive day of a workweek.
Double time applies to hours beyond 12 in a workday, and to any hours beyond eight on that seventh consecutive workday.

The daily rule catches situations federal law misses entirely. If you work ten hours on Monday but only 30 hours that week, federal rules wouldn’t trigger overtime. California still owes you two hours at time-and-a-half for that Monday.

Los Angeles sets its own minimum wage, which climbs to $18.42 per hour on July 1, 2026 and serves as the floor for overtime calculations even if your employment paperwork lists something lower.²³ At that rate, time-and-a-half comes to $27.63 and double time reaches $36.84. On a 14-hour shift, the last two hours alone are worth more than four hours of regular pay.

Your Regular Rate Isn’t Always Your Base Wage

Overtime multipliers apply to your “regular rate,” not just your posted hourly wage. That regular rate must include non-discretionary bonuses, commissions, and other compensation earned during the pay period.⁴ If your employer pays a flat hourly rate plus a monthly production bonus, that bonus folds into the regular rate before the multiplier applies. Leaving bonuses and commissions out is one of the most common ways employers shortchange overtime, sometimes unintentionally.

Who Qualifies for Overtime

Most workers in Los Angeles qualify. Exemptions turn on two things: what you actually do all day, and how much you earn. The employer has to prove you’re exempt, not the other way around.

The Salary and Duties Test

California Labor Code Section 515 requires exempt executive, administrative, and professional employees to earn a monthly salary equal to at least twice the state minimum wage for full-time work.⁵ For 2026, that comes to $70,304 per year.⁶ Hitting the salary number isn’t enough on its own. More than half of your actual work time must involve genuinely executive, administrative, or professional duties. If your title says “manager” but you spend most of your shift stocking shelves or ringing up customers, you are probably non-exempt and owed overtime regardless of what you earn.

Computer software professionals have a separate exemption with a much higher bar: $58.85 per hour or $122,573.13 annually for 2026, and the position must involve work like systems analysis, software design, or programming.⁷ Help desk staff and hardware technicians don’t qualify even if they hit the salary threshold.

If You’ve Been Labeled an Independent Contractor

Some employers classify workers as contractors to sidestep overtime entirely. California’s ABC test, in Labor Code Section 2775, presumes you are an employee unless the hiring company proves all three of the following:⁸

You are free from the company’s control over how you do your work, both in the contract and in practice.
Your work falls outside the company’s usual business. A delivery driver working for a delivery company fails this prong.
You run an independent trade or business of the same type, with other clients.

Fail even one prong and you are legally an employee entitled to overtime. Misclassification is common in construction, trucking, and gig work across Los Angeles.

Hours That Count Toward Overtime

You are “on the clock” whenever you are under your employer’s control, and those hours count toward your daily and weekly totals. A few situations catch workers by surprise.

Travel between job sites. Travel during the workday is compensable. If your employer requires you to meet at a central location and ride company transportation to sites, that travel counts as hours worked.⁹ Your normal commute from home to your regular workplace doesn’t count, but when your employer temporarily sends you somewhere farther than your usual commute, the extra time is compensable. If those added hours push you past eight in a day or 40 in a week, overtime is owed.

“Off the clock” work. If you were suffered or permitted to work, the employer owes you for that time. Telling workers to clock out but keep working, or refusing to pay “unauthorized” overtime, doesn’t hold up. An employer can discipline you after the fact for working overtime you weren’t approved for, but they still have to pay you.⁴

Compressed schedules done wrong. Some employers use four ten-hour days per week. Under Labor Code Section 511, an employer can set up that kind of alternative workweek only if employees approve it in a two-thirds secret ballot election.¹⁰ With a properly adopted schedule, hours nine and ten are straight time. Without the election, hours nine and ten are overtime at time-and-a-half, no matter what the employer calls the arrangement.

Missed meal and rest breaks. These create a separate pay obligation that stacks on top of overtime. California requires a 30-minute meal break before the end of your fifth hour of work and a second one before the end of your tenth hour, plus a paid ten-minute rest break for every four hours worked. Each missed meal or rest break triggers one extra hour of pay at your regular rate. If both are missed the same day, that’s two extra hours. Because these premiums use the same regular-rate calculation, workers already logging overtime hours often see a higher premium too.

Can Your Employer Require You to Work Overtime?

Yes. California is an at-will state, and employers can require overtime and discipline you for refusing, provided the schedule doesn’t violate a collective bargaining agreement, industry safety limits, or your employment contract. What they cannot do is require the work and then not pay for it correctly. Every hour worked has to be paid at the right rate, whether or not the overtime was pre-approved.⁴

Retaliation Is Illegal

Complaining about unpaid overtime, even verbally to your supervisor, is protected activity. California Labor Code Section 98.6 makes it unlawful for an employer to fire, demote, cut your hours, or take any other adverse action against you for raising a wage complaint. Employers who retaliate face penalties of up to $10,000 per employee per violation. You don’t have to file a formal claim first for these protections to apply, and you don’t have to go through the Labor Commissioner before suing for retaliation.

How to File an Unpaid Overtime Claim

The California Labor Commissioner’s Office, also called the DLSE, handles overtime claims at no cost. You don’t need an attorney, and the process is built to be used by workers representing themselves.

Deadline: Three Years

You have three years from the date of each violation to file.¹¹ Each underpaid paycheck is its own violation with its own clock. If your employer has shorted you for five years, you can recover the last three years’ worth but not the first two, so waiting costs you money. Claims based on an oral promise to pay above minimum wage have a two-year deadline; claims based on a written contract get four years.

Gather Your Records

Pay stubs are the most important starting point because they show what you were paid against what you should have been paid.¹² If you don’t have them, Labor Code Section 226 gives you the right to request copies, and your employer must provide them within 21 calendar days. Keep your own daily log of start time, end time, and breaks. When employer records are incomplete or altered, your contemporaneous log carries real weight. Also collect the employer’s full legal name and address, any work schedules, communications about shift changes, and documentation of bonuses or commissions that affect your regular rate.

The Filing Process

You can file online, by email, by mail, or in person at a local DLSE office.¹¹ The Initial Report or Claim form asks for the employer’s information, the specific dates and hours at issue, and the total wages you believe you’re owed.¹³ Show your math, applying the 1.5x or 2x multiplier to your regular rate for each period.

The DLSE investigates and typically schedules a settlement conference where you and your employer try to resolve the claim. Most cases settle at that stage. If not, the case goes to a formal hearing before a deputy labor commissioner who reviews the evidence and issues a decision. The process can take several months.

What You Can Recover

A successful claim recovers more than just the missing wages. Labor Code Section 1194 entitles you to the full amount of unpaid overtime, plus interest, plus reasonable attorney’s fees if you use one.¹⁴

If you no longer work for the employer, waiting time penalties may also apply. Under Labor Code Section 203, your daily wages continue to accrue as a penalty for each day the employer fails to pay what was owed at separation, up to 30 days.¹⁵ For a worker earning $18.42 per hour on an eight-hour schedule, that alone can reach $4,420.80. The penalty exists because some employers calculate that withholding wages costs less than paying on time, and the 30-day cap reverses that math.

Workers who hire private attorneys for overtime claims typically pay on contingency, with the attorney taking a percentage of the recovery (usually around 33% to 40%) rather than billing upfront. Many offer free consultations and collect only if you win.

1
California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 510 – Eight Hours of Labor
2
City of Los Angeles. Wages LA – Office of Wage Standards
3
City of Los Angeles. Rules and Regulations Implementing the Minimum Wage Ordinance
4
Department of Industrial Relations. Frequently Asked Questions – Overtime
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California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 515 – Exemptions From Overtime Requirements
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Department of Industrial Relations. California Minimum Wage Set to Increase to $16.90 Per Hour
7
Department of Industrial Relations. Overtime Exemption for Computer Software Employees
8
California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 2775 – Employee or Independent Contractor
9
Department of Industrial Relations. Wages
10
California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 511 – Alternative Workweek Schedule
11
Department of Industrial Relations. How to File a Wage Claim
12
Department of Industrial Relations. Wage Claim Forms
13
Department of Industrial Relations. Initial Report or Claim
14
California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 1194 – Recovery of Minimum Wage or Overtime Compensation
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California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 203 – Willful Failure to Pay Wages