EXEMPTIONS FROM CALIFORNIA OVERTIME LAWS
Are you trying to determine if you’re being paid properly as a California worker? In the Golden State, there are many rules and regulations surrounding how much employees are owed when it comes to working overtime.
Most nonexempt workers in the state are owed extra pay when working more than eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a workweek. However, not everyone is entitled to to this. Those are the “exempt” workers.
Learn more about the difference between the exempt and nonexempt classification, and how overtime pay is calculated.
According to the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, there are more than a dozen exemptions from the law. Here is a list as provided by that office of classifications of employees who are exempt in some way to the overtime laws as listed in the state’s Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders:
- Executive, Administrative and Professional employees
- What’s an Executive employee exemption?
- What’s an Administrative employee exemption?
- What’s a Professional employee exemption?
- Employees in the computer software field who are paid on an hourly basis and meet all of the other requirements set forth in the Orders
- What’s the Computer Software exemption all about?
- Employees directly employed by the State or any political subdivision thereof, including any city, county or special district.
- Outside Salespersons
- Any individual who is the parent, spouse, child, or legally adopted child of the employer
- Any individual participating in a national service program, such as AmeriCorps.
- Drivers whose hours are regulated by the U.S Department of Transportation Code of Federal Regulation, Title 49, Sections 395.1 to 395.13, Hours of Service of Drivers
- Drivers whose hours are regulated by Title 13 of the California Code of Regulations, subchapter 6.5, section 1200 et seq.
- Employees covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement if the agreement expressly provides for the wages, hours of work, and working conditions, and if the agreement provides premium wage rates for all overtime hours worked and a regular hourly rate of pay for those employees of not less than 30% more than the state minimum wage.
- Employees (except minors) whose earnings exceed one and one-half times the minimum wage and more than half their compensation represents commissions
- Student nurses in a school accredited by the California Board of Registered Nursing or by the Board of Vocational Nurse and Psychiatric Technician Examiners
- Employees who have entered into a collective bargaining agreement under the Railway Labor Act
- Taxicab drivers
- Airline employees who work over 40 but not more than 60 hours during the workweek due to a temporary modification in their normal work schedule not required by the employer and arranged at the request of the employee
- Full-time carnival ride operators employed by a traveling carnival
- Crew members employed on a commercial fishing boat Fish and Game Code Section7920 et seq.
- Professional Actors
- Employees whose duties are exclusively those of a motion picture projectionist
- An announcer, news editor, or chief engineer employed by a radio or television station in a city or town with a population of 25,000 or less
- Any employee who is engaged in work that is primarily intellectual, managerial, or creative, and which requires exercise of discretion and independent judgment, and for which the remuneration is not less than two times the monthly State minimum wage for full time employment
- Sheepherders
- Irrigators
- Employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement if the agreement provides premium wage rates for overtime work and a cash wage rate of at least $1.00 per hour more than the state minimum wage.
- Personal attendants
- Any person under the age of 18 who is employed as a babysitter for a minor child of the employer in the employer’s home.
Are You Nonexempt and Owed Back Overtime Pay? Lauby, Mankin & Lauby Can Help
Our California employment law experts at Lauby, Mankin & Lauby LLP may be able to help you claim back overtime wages that you are owed. Our attorneys are offering a free review of your compensation schedule to determine if you are currently classified and being paid properly under California law.
Contact Lauby, Mankin & Lauby LLP for a no-cost consultation and our lawyers will fight for your legal rights as an employee. You can reach us online or call our toll free phone number at 888-959-8508.