Who Qualifies For Overtime Pay?
In California, an employer must pay, at minimum, one-and-a-half times your hourly rate when you work more than eight hours a day or more than 40 hours a week.
An exception is made for “exempt” employees. To be exempt you must perform valid managerial, administrative or professional tasks, which are of a nature different from that performed by hourly employees. Exempt employees often receive a salary rather than an hourly wage, and they do not have to be paid overtime for working long hours.
Employers obviously would rather not pay extra for long hours of work. Whether an individual may be classified as exempt is an area of dispute. Many employees are misclassified as exempt when they should be receiving overtime pay. Even if you do perform some managerial work, if it is not 51% of your time, you should not be classified as exempt. You should be paid overtime.
Fair Calculation
There are honest mistakes also, due simply to ignorance of the law. Commissions are a common source of miscalculated wages. For example, if you earn an hourly rate plus sales, incentive earnings or other commission, your overtime should be calculated based on the hourly rate PLUS the commission. Production incentives are also treated like sales incentives in this way.
The term SPIFF stands for “sales performance incentive funding formulas.” Your overtime pay should be based on your regular pay PLUS these payments.
Most unpaid overtime calculation errors are not a gray area. We may be able to quickly tell you if you are entitled to back pay or increased earnings going forward.
For more than 25 years, attorney David Strauss has represented nonexempt employees in San Diego County, taking cases to trial and winning substantial verdicts. He has been recognized among the “Best Lawyers in San Diego – Employment Law” in San Diego Magazine and in the San Diego Daily Transcript, and is listed in the San Diego Super Lawyers list in employment litigation on the Super Lawyers website.
We limit our employee misclassification and wage law caseload to ensure that we can provide our clients with the highest degree of legal service. Contact a Carlsbad lawyer today about unpaid overtime.