Wages, Hours, & Overtime in Sacramento

California Workers Are Entitled to Fair Compensation, Reasonable Hours, & Overtime

California and federal labor and employment laws establish rules and guidelines that employers must follow regarding how much they must pay their employees and what hours they are permitted to allow their employees to work. These laws and regulations grew out of a need to ensure workers were adequately compensated for the work they performed on behalf of their employers. An employer who fails to pay his or her employee in accordance with the law can be the subject of a civil lawsuit brought against him or her by the aggrieved employee.

Are you concerned that your employer may not be paying you appropriately for the time you spend working? Contact a Sacramento employment lawyer to have your case evaluated. You may be entitled to compensation if your employer is violating the law.

Laws Regarding the Number of Hours Worked

So long as you are over the age of 18 and/or are no longer in school, an employer can ask you to work as many hours per week as the employer wishes. What is more, an employer can discipline you or terminate you if you refuse to work overtime as directed by the employer.

However, the employer’s direction to work additional hours may be unlawful if:

• The employer does not properly compensate you for the time you actually work
• The employer assigns you additional work in retaliation for your engaging in legally protected activities and/or as a means of unlawfully discriminating against you
• The employer violates any other law or regulation

You have an obligation to accurately report the actual hours you worked to your employer, and your employer has an obligation to have policies and procedures that enable you to accurately record your hours worked.

Laws Regarding Wages & Overtime in California

There are a variety of laws relating to the wages that employers must pay to their employees. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes a federal minimum wage; however, California’s minimum wage exceeds the federal minimum wage. This means that California employers must pay their hourly employees at least the California minimum wage. If you are classified as a “nonexempt” employee and you work more than 40 hours in a work week and/or more than 8 hours in a day, you are entitled to overtime pay of at least one and one-half times the employee’s regular rate of pay.

An employer must pay you overtime pay as required by law even if the employer did not authorize you to work overtime. Even though the employer must pay you in accordance with wage and overtime laws, the employer may still discipline you for any overtime policies the employer may have that you violated.

Some employers try to avoid paying their employees’ overtime by attempting to classify their employees as “exempt.” In most cases, an “exempt” employer is excepted from federal and state overtime requirements. “Exempt” employees are typically highly skilled professionals like doctors and lawyers who work with little or no supervision.

Contact my office today at 916-443-3553 to discuss your case with me.