The short version
- 1.5× after 8 hours in a day.
- 2× (double time) after 12 hours in a day.
- 1.5× after 40 hours in a workweek.
- 1.5× for the first 8 hours on the 7th consecutive day of work, 2× after that.
- Miss a meal break? Owe 1 hour of pay at regular rate. Miss rest break? Same penalty. Both can stack in one day.
California uses whichever calculation gives the employee the most money. You don't pick — the rule does.
Who is actually exempt?
Almost no one in the trades. The white-collar exemption (executive, administrative, professional) requires at least 2× state minimum wage on a salary basis, plus duties that are genuinely managerial or professional.
- 2026 CA minimum wage: $16.90/hr statewide (cities like LA, San Francisco, West Hollywood are higher).
- Exempt salary floor: $70,304/year ($1,352/week).
- Health-care, fast-food, and computer-professional categories have their own higher thresholds.
A foreman who spends most of his day swinging a hammer is non-exempt no matter what his title says. The DOL and the DLSE look at duties, not titles.
The regular rate (where shops underpay)
Overtime is 1.5× the regular rate, not the hourly rate. The regular rate includes:
- Non-discretionary bonuses (safety, attendance, production bonuses)
- Commissions
- Shift differentials
- Per-job or piece-rate pay
If you pay a $200 safety bonus at the end of a 50-hour week, you owe a true-up on the OT hours. Most shops miss this. Auditors love it.
Meal & rest breaks — the cash leak
- Meal break: 30 unpaid minutes by the end of the 5th hour. A 2nd meal break by the 10th hour.
- Rest break: 10 paid minutes for every 4 hours (or major fraction).
- Penalty: 1 hour of pay at regular rate per missed meal break, per missed rest break, per day.
Field crews who eat lunch in the truck while driving to the next job have technically not taken a meal break. Document the break, or pay the premium.
Common CA overtime mistakes we see weekly
- Salaried foreman, no OT. Salary alone doesn't make someone exempt. Duties + salary floor + paid on salary basis — all three or none.
- Comp time instead of OT. Illegal in the private sector in California.
- Forgetting the seventh-day rule. If a tech works Mon–Sun, Sunday is OT from minute one.
- Averaging two weeks. 30 hours one week and 50 the next is still 10 OT hours, not zero.
- Skipping the bonus true-up. Year-end production bonus triggers OT recalculation for every OT week it covers.
The 4/10 schedule — legal but tricky
California allows an Alternative Workweek Schedule (AWS) — four 10-hour days with no daily OT — but it requires a secret-ballot election with 2/3 approval from the affected work unit, written notice, and filing the results with the DLSE. Skip a step and the whole schedule is invalid; you owe back OT for every hour over 8.
What this costs when you get it wrong
Unpaid CA overtime claims carry three years of back wages, liquidated damages equal to the unpaid wages, waiting-time penalties up to 30 days of wages per former employee, and PAGA penalties of $100–$200 per pay period per employee. One misclassified foreman over two years can run $40,000+ before attorneys' fees.
We run payroll for trades and restaurants across California with the regular-rate math, meal-break tracking, and bonus true-ups built in — so the OT bill you see is the OT bill the DLSE expects. If you want a 15-minute audit of your last quarter's timecards, we'll show you exactly where it's leaking.
