California Overtime Laws in 2026: Rules, Rates and How to Calculate

California overtime law is the strictest in the United States. Most states follow the federal standard and pay overtime after 40 hours in a week. California pays it after 8 hours in a day, after 40 in a week, on the seventh consecutive day worked, and at double time once the hours get long enough. Employers who apply federal rules in California underpay their staff without realising it.

This guide covers California overtime laws as they stand in 2026, with every figure and rule linked to the California Department of Industrial Relations or the Labor Code so you can check it yourself.

California overtime law: the short answer

For a nonexempt employee in California, overtime is owed at:

• 1.5× the regular rate for hours over 8 and up to 12 in a workday
• 1.5× the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek
• 1.5× the regular rate for the first 8 hours on the seventh consecutive day of a workweek
• 2× the regular rate for hours over 12 in a workday
• 2× the regular rate for hours over 8 on the seventh consecutive day of a workweek

These provisions apply to nonexempt employees aged 18 or over, and to 16 and 17 year olds who are not required by law to attend school and are not otherwise prohibited from the work. Source: DIR, Overtime FAQ and Labor Code section 510.

Daily, weekly and seventh-day overtime

The part of California overtime law that employers moving into the state most often miss is the daily rule. Federal law under the Fair Labor Standards Act only requires overtime after 40 hours in a week. California requires it after 8 hours in a day regardless of the weekly total.

An employee who works four 10-hour days totals 40 hours for the week, so no weekly overtime is owed. But they worked 2 hours over 8 on each of those four days, which means 8 hours of daily overtime at 1.5×. Under federal rules that week costs straight time. Under California rules it does not.

The workweek itself is any seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It does not have to begin on Sunday, but once set it must stay consistent, and different groups of employees can have different workweeks. Hours cannot be moved between workweeks to avoid overtime.

The seventh-day rule is separate again. On the seventh consecutive day worked in a single workweek, the first 8 hours are paid at 1.5× and anything beyond 8 at 2×, no matter how few hours were worked earlier in the week.

Overtime rates at the 2026 minimum wage

California’s state minimum wage is $16.90 per hour for all employers as of 1 January 2026, per the DIR minimum wage FAQ. At that rate, the floor for overtime is:

Three things change this floor. Fast food workers and certain health care workers have their own higher minimum wages, set out in the DIR’s fast food and health care worker FAQs. Many cities and counties set higher local minimums, tracked in the UC Berkeley Labor Center inventory. And where federal, state and local rules conflict, the employer must apply whichever standard is most beneficial to the employee.

The state rate now adjusts annually for inflation using the CPI-W, capped at a 3.5% rise in any one year and never reduced. Anyone maintaining payroll calculations should expect a change each January.

The regular rate of pay, and why it is rarely just the hourly wage

Overtime is calculated on the regular rate of pay, not on the base hourly wage. The DIR defines the regular rate as the compensation an employee normally earns, and it includes hourly earnings, salary, piecework earnings and commissions. It can never be less than the applicable minimum wage.

How you arrive at it depends on how the person is paid.

1. Paid hourly.

   The hourly rate is the regular rate, including shift differentials and the per-hour value of any non-hourly compensation earned.

2. Paid a salary.

   Multiply the monthly salary by 12 to get the annual figure, divide by 52 for the weekly figure, then divide by 40 to get the regular hourly rate.

3. Paid by piece or commission.

   Either use the piece or commission rate as the regular rate and pay 1.5× for the first four overtime hours in a day and 2× beyond 12 hours, or divide total weekly earnings by total hours worked and pay an additional half rate for time-and-a-half hours and an additional full rate for double-time hours.

4. Paid two or more rates by the same employer.

   Use the weighted average. The DIR’s own example: 32 hours at $11.00 plus 10 hours at $9.00 gives $442 across 42 hours, so the regular rate for that week is $10.52.

Some payments are excluded from the regular rate entirely: gifts for special occasions, expense reimbursements, pay for vacation, holidays or illness when no work was performed, premium pay for Saturday, Sunday or holiday work where that premium is at least 1.5×, and discretionary bonuses.

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Bonuses and commissions: the calculation employers get wrong

Nondiscretionary bonuses have to be folded into the regular rate, and California treats two kinds of bonus differently. Getting this backwards is one of the more expensive payroll errors available, because it compounds across every overtime hour in the bonus period.

A flat sum bonus, meaning a fixed amount not tied to how much was produced, is divided by the maximum legal regular hours worked in the bonus-earning period. Not by total hours. Overtime on that amount is then paid at 1.5× or 2×.

A production bonus, designed as an incentive for increased output per hour worked, is divided by the total hours worked in the bonus period. Overtime on that amount is then paid at an additional 0.5× or 1× the regular rate.

Dividing a flat sum bonus by total hours instead of maximum legal regular hours understates the regular rate, and therefore underpays every overtime hour in the period. Overtime on either type is due in the pay period following the end of the bonus-earning period.

Discretionary bonuses and genuine gifts, such as a holiday gift not measured by hours worked, production or efficiency, stay out of the regular rate.

Who is exempt from California overtime laws

An exemption means California overtime law does not apply to a classification of employee at all. The most commonly used are the executive, administrative and professional exemptions, which appear in section 1 of every Industrial Welfare Commission wage order.

Being salaried is not by itself an exemption. The DIR is explicit that a salaried employee must be paid overtime unless they meet the test for exempt status. Job title is not the test either; duties and salary both have to qualify.

Other exemptions listed in the DIR’s exemptions table include outside salespersons, employees in the computer software field paid hourly who meet the wage order requirements, a parent, spouse or child of the employer, participants in national service programmes such as AmeriCorps, drivers whose hours are regulated by the US Department of Transportation or Title 13 of the California Code of Regulations, employees under a qualifying collective bargaining agreement, taxicab drivers, professional actors, motion picture projectionists, and student nurses.

Under wage orders 4 and 7 there is also a commissioned employee exemption, which applies where earnings exceed one and a half times the minimum wage and more than half of compensation comes from commissions. Minors are excluded from it.

Exceptions: alternative workweeks, healthcare and agriculture

An exception is different from an exemption. Overtime is still owed, but on a different basis. These are set out in the DIR’s exceptions table.

Alternative workweek schedules are the one most employers ask about. Where a schedule has been validly adopted through the required employee vote, a regular schedule of up to 10 hours a day within a 40-hour week does not trigger daily overtime. Beyond the scheduled hours, or over 10 and up to 12 hours a day, or over 40 hours in the week, 1.5× applies. Over 12 hours a day, and over 8 hours on days worked beyond the scheduled number, 2× applies. This is the basis for the four 10-hour day arrangement, and it only works if the schedule was adopted properly.

Healthcare employers under wage orders 4 and 5 can adopt an alternative schedule with workdays over 10 and up to 12 hours within a 40-hour week without daily overtime, provided anything over 12 hours in a day is paid at 2× and anything over 40 hours in the week at 1.5×.

Agricultural workers under wage order 14 completed a phase-in that brought them to the standard 8-hour day and 40-hour week, reached in 2022 for employers with more than 25 employees and in 2025 for smaller employers, with double time after 12 hours in a day.

Further exceptions cover camp counsellors, live-in employees, ski establishment staff during the season, ambulance drivers and attendants on 24-hour shifts, and hospital employees working a 14-day period in place of a workweek. If your industry appears in that list, read the wage order rather than relying on the general rule.

Six rules employers commonly get wrong

1. Unauthorised overtime still has to be paid.

   California requires payment for all hours an employee is suffered or permitted to work, whether or not the work was authorised. You may discipline someone for breaching an overtime authorisation policy, but you must still pay them. The standard is work the employer knew or should have known about.

2. Employees cannot waive overtime.

   An agreement to work for less than the overtime rate does not hold. Under Labor Code section 1194 the employee can still recover the difference.

3. Paid time off does not count toward overtime.

   Overtime is based on hours actually worked. The DIR’s example: an employee works four 8-hour days plus a Saturday, is off sick on the Friday, and is paid for 48 hours. No overtime is owed, because only 40 hours were worked.

4. You can require overtime, with one limit.

   An employer may generally set schedules and discipline an employee who refuses scheduled overtime. But you cannot discipline someone for refusing to work the seventh day in a workweek, and causing or inducing an employee to forgo a day of rest carries a penalty.

5. Federal rules are not a safe default.

   Where federal, state and local requirements differ, the employer must follow whichever is most beneficial to the employee. In California that is almost always the state or local rule.

6. The regular rate is not the base wage.

   Shift differentials, nondiscretionary bonuses and commissions all feed into it. Calculating overtime on the base hourly rate alone underpays anyone who earns any of those.

When overtime must be paid, and what happens if it is not

Overtime wages are due no later than the payday for the next regular payroll period after the period in which they were earned, under Labor Code section 204. Only the overtime portion may be delayed in this way. Straight-time wages remain due on the normal schedule.

If overtime goes unpaid, an employee can file a wage claim with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement or sue in court. A claim is assigned to a Deputy Labor Commissioner and may go to a conference, then a hearing, producing an Order, Decision or Award that either side can appeal. If the employer neither pays nor appeals, the DLSE has the award entered as a court judgment.

Former employees may also claim a waiting time penalty under Labor Code section 203. And retaliating against someone for raising a wage claim gives them separate grounds for a discrimination or retaliation complaint.

The practical exposure for employers is that overtime disputes usually turn on records. If your time data cannot show what hours were actually worked on which days, you are arguing from a weak position regardless of the underlying facts.

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Frequently asked questions

Is overtime after 8 hours or 40 hours in California?

Both. California is a daily overtime state, so 1.5× is owed for hours over 8 in a single workday even if the weekly total stays under 40, and separately for hours over 40 in a workweek. The two do not stack on the same hours. An employee working four 10-hour days earns 8 hours of daily overtime despite hitting exactly 40 hours for the week.

Can you work four 10-hour days without overtime in California?

Only under a validly adopted alternative workweek schedule. That requires the process set out in the applicable wage order, including a secret-ballot vote of the affected work unit. Where one is in place, a regular schedule of up to 10 hours a day within a 40-hour week does not trigger daily overtime. Without one, the ninth and tenth hours of each day are overtime.

Can an employee refuse overtime in California?

Generally no. An employer may set the schedule and may discipline, up to termination, an employee who refuses scheduled overtime. The exception is the seventh day of a workweek: an employee cannot be disciplined for declining to work it, and an employer who causes or induces someone to forgo a day of rest is subject to a penalty. An employee who is fully informed of the right to rest may choose to work anyway.

Sources

Every rule and figure above comes from these primary sources, all checked on 18 August 2026:

• DIR, Overtime FAQ, Labor Commissioner’s Office
• DIR, Minimum Wage FAQ, updated December 2025
• DIR, Exemptions from the overtime laws
• DIR, Exceptions to the general overtime law
• Labor Code section 510, day’s work and overtime
• Labor Code section 515, exemptions and the salary threshold
• Labor Code section 204, when wages are due
• Labor Code section 1194, no waiver of overtime
• Labor Code section 203, waiting time penalties
• US Department of Labor, Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal baseline

Keep records that answer the question

California overtime law turns on hours worked per day, not just per week, and on the seventh consecutive day within a defined workweek. A weekly total cannot answer either question. Wage claims are decided on records, and an employer without day-level data is arguing from memory.

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