A Primer of Los Angeles Overtime Pay Rules

These days, most employees are working overtime and it just isn’t about getting paid extra but also because most employers need their employers to work longer hours in order to maximize what’s left of the labor force after downsizing and cost-cutting.

But often, despite working beyond their regular hours, a lot of employees do not receive overtime pay. The reasons for such failure to pay overtime may vary – it could be because of the employer’s deliberate intent to defraud their worker. It may also be just a simple case of negligence to compute overtime pay or it could even be due to the economic situation of the employer. Irrespective of these reasons however, such failure to compensate employees for overtime is against the law.

Thus, all non-exempt employees who rendered overtime work must be compensated for such. If you are an employee in Los Angeles and you have been working more than 40 hours a week and do not get paid premium for it, you may either file a wage claim at the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (the Labor Commissioner's Office) or to expedite and simplify the process, hire Los Angeles overtime pay attorneys to file a lawsuit in court against your employer.

Here is a primer on the Los Angeles overtime pay laws:

• Overtime work must be paid, whether it was authorized or not by the employer, at the rate of 1 ½ times the employee's regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of eight up to an including 12 hours in any workday.
• If the hours worked overtime are in excess of 12 hours in any workday and for all hours worked in excess of eight on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek, the rate of overtime pay must be double the employee's regular rate of pay.
• To determine the regular rate of pay, this shall be based on whether you are paid through hourly earnings, salary, piecework earnings, and commissions. For example, your hourly pay is your regular rate of pay. In case you are a salaried worker, estimate your weekly salary and then divide it by the number of legal maximum regular hours (40) to get your regular hourly rate.
• As previously mentioned, only non-exempt employees are entitled to be paid overtime. Thus, if your occupation is any of the following, you are considered as exempt and cannot be paid overtime:
• Executive, Administrative, Professional employees
• Employees in computer software field
• Those who are directly employed by the State or any political subdivision thereof
• Outside salespersons
• Employees whose rates exceeds the minimum wage and more than half their pay is from commissions
• Taxicab drivers and other drivers
• Actors
• Airline Employees
• Employees who are engaged in work that is primarily intellectual, managerial or creative
• Personal attendants
• Babysitters
• According to the Labor Code, overtime must be paid no later than the payday for the next regular payroll period after which overtime wages were earned.

If you were deprived of overtime pay even after working countless hours for your employer, even if you have been terminated from such job, you have the right to file a wage claim or lawsuit to recover your lost wages.