Does your boss tell you, “Overtime begins after 40 hours”? If you work in California, that’s sort of how it works, SOMETIMES – but not all the time.
Here’s how it really works. Overtime BEGINS after you’ve worked 8 hours in a day, OR 40 hours in a week. AND, depending on whether you work 6 or 7 days a week, different overtime factors may come into play!
Guess what else! If you work a 9-5:30 shift, and are scheduled for a half-hour meal break, AND you are forced to miss that meal break, because you can’t leave your workplace, or your work is too demanding, then you’ve worked overtime!
What if you worked overtime for that half hour for every day of the week for 50 weeks a year for 4 years? That would be 3/4 of an hour’s pay for 4 years, or 3/4 of what you make in a year!
Say your earned $10/hr. So you missed .5 hours of overtime at $15/hr. So you missed out on $7.50 each day, $37.50 each week, and in 4 years (200 weeks), you are owed – plus interest, $7,500. What if you earn $20/hour in that scenario? $15,000!
And that doesn’t even include meal break penalties, which are an hour’s pay for each day you miss such a meal break. Meal breaks go back 3 years. So that would be $10 x 5 days a week x 150 weeks, which would be another $7,500!
Were you fired recently? Let go in a reduction in force? Told your job had been eliminated? Maybe you’re owed overtime! Call us! 818-547-5200 or 626-674-5509. Or email us at tom@falveylaw.com.
Tom the Lawyer 