California Labor Code 510: Overtime, Double Time, and Wage Claims

California Labor Code Section 510 requires employers to pay non-exempt employees 1.5 times their regular rate for any hours worked beyond eight in a workday or 40 in a workweek, and double the regular rate for hours beyond 12 in a workday. It also imposes premium pay when an employee works all seven days of the workweek. Unlike federal law, which only measures overtime by the week, California triggers overtime on a daily basis, so a single long day creates a premium pay obligation even if the weekly total never reaches 40.¹

When Time and a Half Applies

Non-exempt employees earn 1.5 times their regular rate under three separate triggers:¹

Hours worked beyond eight in a single workday, up to 12 hours.
Hours worked beyond 40 in a single workweek.
The first eight hours worked on the seventh day of the workweek.

The daily and weekly triggers operate independently. If you work a 10-hour shift on Monday, two hours of daily overtime are already earned before Tuesday begins. Those hours are flagged immediately, not held back to see whether the weekly total eventually clears 40.

The seventh-day trigger is often misread. “Seventh day” means the seventh day of the employer’s defined workweek, not the seventh consecutive calendar day you happen to work. If the workweek runs Sunday through Saturday and you work all seven of those days, Saturday is the seventh day, regardless of your schedule the week before.

When Double Time Applies

The higher premium kicks in at two thresholds:¹

Any hours worked past 12 in a single workday.
Any hours worked past eight on the seventh day of the workweek.

A 14-hour workday breaks down like this: the first eight hours at straight time, hours nine through twelve at 1.5 times the regular rate, and hours thirteen and fourteen at double the regular rate. On the seventh day of the workweek, the first eight hours pay at 1.5 times, and anything past that pays at double time.

The Same Hour Cannot Trigger Both Daily and Weekly Overtime

California does not allow “pyramiding.” Once an hour has been counted and paid as daily overtime, it drops out of the weekly overtime calculation.¹

Say you work five 10-hour days in one workweek. Each day generates two hours of daily overtime, giving you 10 daily overtime hours. Your total hours are 50, which is 10 over the 40-hour weekly threshold. But those 10 hours have already been paid as daily overtime, so the weekly calculation produces no additional overtime. At the end of the week, the employer pays based on whichever method, daily or weekly, produces the larger number of overtime hours.

Who Is Covered

Labor Code 510 applies to non-exempt employees, which covers most of California’s hourly workforce. Whether you are exempt depends on what you do, how much authority you exercise, and how much you earn, not on the title your employer puts on your paperwork.

To qualify as exempt under Labor Code 515, an employee must spend more than half their working time on executive, administrative, or professional duties, must regularly exercise discretion and independent judgment, and must earn a monthly salary equal to at least twice the state minimum wage for full-time work.² With California’s 2026 minimum wage at $16.90 per hour, that salary floor works out to roughly $70,304 per year.³ Earning less than that amount makes you non-exempt no matter your title or duties.

Some workers sit outside the overtime rules altogether, including outside salespeople, certain commissioned employees, and workers covered by collective bargaining agreements that provide premium rates at least 30 percent above minimum wage.⁴

What “Regular Rate of Pay” Actually Means

Your overtime rate is a multiple of your regular rate, so getting the regular rate right is the whole ballgame. For an hourly employee earning one wage and nothing else, the regular rate is just the hourly wage. For anyone earning shift differentials, non-discretionary bonuses, commissions, or piece-rate pay, more work is required.

The regular rate equals total non-overtime compensation earned in the workweek divided by total hours worked that week. Non-discretionary bonuses, including attendance bonuses, performance incentives, production bonuses, and safety bonuses, must be folded into that total.⁵ Commissions and shift differentials belong in the total too. Discretionary bonuses, expense reimbursements, and vacation pay are excluded.

A quarterly production bonus has to be allocated back across each workweek it covered, and overtime for those weeks has to be recalculated. Employers who skip that step end up underpaying overtime even when they track hours accurately.

Alternative Workweek Schedules

Labor Code 511 creates an exception for workplaces that adopt an alternative workweek schedule. Employees can work longer days, up to 10 hours, without triggering daily overtime, so long as the total for the week stays within 40. A four-day, 10-hour workweek is the most common version.⁶

Management cannot impose this arrangement unilaterally. The employer proposes the schedule to a specific work unit, and at least two-thirds of affected employees must approve it by secret ballot. If the vote fails, the standard overtime rules stay in place.⁶

Once an alternative schedule is in effect, the daily overtime threshold shifts to the scheduled shift length. Hours worked beyond that shift, up to 12, pay at 1.5 times. Hours past 12 in a day pay at double time. Hours past eight on days worked outside the regular alternative schedule also pay at double time. The 40-hour weekly threshold stays in place.⁶

What to Do If You Are Not Being Paid Overtime

Start with your pay stub. Under Labor Code 226, every itemized wage statement must show gross wages, total hours worked, all applicable hourly rates and the hours worked at each rate, deductions, net wages, and the pay period dates.⁷ If something looks wrong, you can request your payroll records in writing, and the employer must make them available within 30 calendar days.⁸ Keeping your own log of hours worked, even informally, gives you a much stronger position if a dispute develops.

Filing a Wage Claim

The Labor Commissioner’s Office handles wage claims administratively. You can file online, by email, by mail, or in person, and there is no filing fee.⁹ The deadline for an overtime claim is three years from the date the wages should have been paid. Miss that window and the wages are gone, so filing earlier rather than later matters, particularly because payroll records become harder to reconstruct as time passes.

Filing a Lawsuit

You can skip the administrative process and go straight to court. Labor Code 1194 lets any employee who received less than the required overtime file a civil action to recover the unpaid amount, plus interest, reasonable attorney’s fees, and costs.¹⁰ The attorney’s fees provision matters in practice, because many employment lawyers will take overtime cases on contingency knowing that fees can be recovered if the employee prevails.

One limitation to know about: California’s liquidated damages statute, Labor Code 1194.2, does not cover overtime claims. Liquidated damages, which effectively double the unpaid amount, are available only for minimum wage violations. If you are owed both unpaid minimum wages and unpaid overtime, liquidated damages apply only to the minimum wage portion.¹¹

Waiting Time Penalties

If your employment ends and the employer willfully fails to pay all wages owed, including unpaid overtime, Labor Code 203 adds a penalty on top. Your daily wages continue to accrue as a penalty from the date they were due, up to 30 days of additional pay. That penalty is separate from the unpaid overtime itself and can meaningfully increase the total recovery.

1
California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 510 – Overtime Pay Requirements
2
California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 515 – Overtime Exemptions
3
California Department of Industrial Relations. Minimum Wage
4
California Department of Industrial Relations. Exemptions From the Overtime Laws
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 56C – Bonuses Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
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California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 511 – Alternative Workweek Schedules
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California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 226 – Itemized Wage Statements
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California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 1198.5 – Personnel Records Inspection
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Labor Commissioner’s Office. How to File a Wage Claim
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California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 1194 – Action for Overtime Compensation
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California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 1194.2 – Liquidated Damages