Network operations engineers, information technology (“IT”) specialists, systems administrator/engineers, database administrators, network administrators, network analysts, desk support, regardless of titles given by employers, these employees are known to share  two things in common:  long working hours and high-risk overtime liability for employers.

This post is written to provide employees and employers with an understanding on how to calculate overtime hours under California overtime laws. If you do not like math, you can refer to our easy-to-use online overtime calculator that will do to all computations for you.

In one of the previous posts, we discussed how some commercial bus drivers may be exempt from California overtime laws under Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Order No. 9 section 3(L). It is crucial to keep in mind that in addition to state law, hours and days of work of commercial bus drivers are also regulated by federal law, namely, the Federal Standard Labor Act of 1938 (“FLSA”.)

On September 30, 2012, the California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that amended Section 515 of the Labor Code. The bill did two things: first, it outlawed any agreement under which the employer sets a fix salary for non-exempt employees to compensate for both regular and overtime hours, and, second, it overruled a controversial decision Arechiga v. Dolores Press, Inc., 192 Cal. App. 4th 567 (Cal. App. 2d Dist. 2011).

In the past few years, California employers have witnessed a drastic increase in overtime claims brought by former and current employees. Because of the statutory one-way attorney fee provision under Labor Code section1194, these claims are exceedingly expensive to defend and often employers are compelled to settle to avoid exposure.