California overtime is owed on the day as well as the week. Under Labor Code §510, a non-exempt employee earns 1.5× the regular rate for hours past 8 in a workday, 2× for hours past 12 in a workday, and 1.5× for hours past 40 straight-time hours in a workweek. On the seventh consecutive day of a single workweek, the first 8 hours are at 1.5× and everything after that is at 2×. Hours are never counted twice — each hour is paid at its single highest applicable rate.
Overtime is calculated on the regular rate, not the base hourly wage. The regular rate folds in nondiscretionary pay — production bonuses, attendance bonuses, shift differentials, piece rates — and California computes flat-sum bonuses differently from federal law: divided by non-overtime hours worked rather than total hours (Alvarado v. Dart Container, 2018). Overtime is owed even when it was never authorized; the remedy for unapproved overtime is discipline, not non-payment.
When does overtime start in California?
Under Labor Code §510, three independent triggers each fire overtime for nonexempt workers — and any one of them is enough:
| Trigger | Rate | Federal (FLSA)? |
|---|---|---|
| More than 8 hours in a workday | 1.5× regular rate | No — daily OT doesn't exist federally |
| More than 12 hours in a workday | 2× regular rate | No |
| More than 40 hours in a workweek | 1.5× regular rate | Yes — the only federal trigger |
| 7th consecutive day — first 8 hours | 1.5× regular rate | No |
| 7th consecutive day — beyond 8 hours | 2× regular rate | No |
The practical consequence: a crew that works four 10-hour days totals 40 hours and owes zero federal overtime — but 8 hours of California overtime, two per day. Any payroll process that only watches the weekly total is underpaying, and under Naranjo-era stacking, quietly building waiting-time and wage-statement exposure on top. See the gap for your own schedule →
Anatomy of a 13-hour day
Rules stated as thresholds are easy to nod along to and hard to price. Here is a single storm-response day — one worker, 5:00 AM to 6:00 PM, at a $32 regular rate — with every hour placed in its correct tier.
When is double time owed?
Two situations: hours beyond 12 in a single workday, and hours beyond 8 on the seventh consecutive workday of a workweek. A 14-hour emergency dry-in after a storm pays 8 regular hours + 4 at 1.5× + 2 at 2×. There is no "we agreed to straight time" exception — overtime rights can't be waived by agreement.
The "regular rate" is not the hourly wage
Every overtime hour is paid on the regular rate of pay — which folds in nondiscretionary bonuses, production and piece-rate earnings, and commissions. Two field-crew specifics:
- Flat-sum bonuses are worse than they look. Under Alvarado v. Dart Container (2018), a flat bonus (a $100 attendance bonus, a per-job completion bonus) is divided by only the non-overtime hours to compute the rate — a higher divisor-math than the federal method, on purpose.
- Production bonuses ride every OT hour. A crew bonus program that ignores its own effect on overtime rates re-creates the violation it was meant to reward around. (CDO's bounty engine runs this true-up per workweek automatically.)
No pyramiding — but no shortcuts either
Hours already paid as daily overtime don't count again toward the 40-hour weekly trigger — California doesn't require paying twice for the same hour. But the inverse discipline matters more: each hour must be paid at the highest single rate it qualifies for. Getting this right requires computing the day-by-day and week-level math together, per worker, per workweek — exactly the arithmetic that breaks spreadsheets at crew scale.
Unauthorized overtime is still owed
If the employer knew or should have known the work happened, the overtime is payable — even when it violated a written policy. You may discipline for unauthorized overtime; you may never dock it. The load-bearing phrase is "should have known": GPS-timestamped clock data showing when work actually started and ended is what turns that from a jury question into a record.
The 4×10 schedule — legal only with the paperwork
Crews love four 10-hour days. California allows it without daily overtime only under a formal Alternative Workweek Schedule (AWS): proposed in writing, adopted by a two-thirds secret-ballot vote of the affected work unit, and registered with the DIR before it takes effect. An informal handshake 4×10 owes two hours of overtime every day it runs — one of the most common self-inflicted wounds in construction, because everyone involved thinks they agreed to it.
Overtime exemptions (executive / administrative / professional) require exempt duties most of the time and a fixed salary of at least twice the state minimum wage for full-time work. Titles don't matter. A foreman who swings a hammer half the day is nonexempt no matter what the org chart says — and misclassification claims stack the same penalty layers as break violations.
What compliant looks like at crew scale
- Minute-level records with device timestamps — daily OT math is only as good as the punches under it, and rounding is indefensible near meals (Donohue).
- Daily + weekly + 7th-day math computed together, per worker, per workweek, with bonuses folded into the rate.
- Long days flagged while they're happening — the cheapest 12-hour day is the one the office saw at hour 10.
- Drive time counted where Morillion requires it — a yard-to-site hour can be the hour that crosses 8.
This is the math CDO runs on every punch as it lands: daily/weekly/7th-day overtime, double time, bonus true-ups per workweek, meal-break premiums — pre-filled into payroll for human approval, with the immutable record behind it. Meal-break rules are the other half — read that guide →
CDO provides software, not legal advice. This guide summarizes California law as of July 2026 for general information; wage orders and case law change, and collective-bargaining agreements can alter these rules. For decisions about your workforce, consult qualified employment counsel.
- Labor Code §510 — daily overtime, double time, seventh consecutive day
- Labor Code §511 — alternative workweek schedules
- Labor Code §512 — meal periods (which long days trigger)
- California DIR / DLSE — overtime FAQ
- Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel (2021) — regular rate of compensation (PDF)
- 29 CFR §778.110 — the federal regular-rate method, for contrast with Alvarado