California overtime: daily, weekly and seventh-day rules

The four rules

• More than 8 hours in a workday: 1.5× the regular rate
• More than 12 hours in a workday: 2× the regular rate
• More than 40 hours in a workweek: 1.5× for the hours not already paid as daily overtime
• The seventh consecutive day worked in a workweek: 1.5× for the first 8 hours and 2× after 8

Workday and workweek

A workday is a fixed 24-hour period that starts at the same time every day, and a workweek is a fixed period of seven consecutive workdays. Most businesses use midnight to midnight and Sunday to Saturday, but you can set other fixed starting points. Whatever you choose, keep it consistent.

Example 1: a long day

An employee earning $20 an hour works 13 hours on Monday.

• First 8 hours: 8 × $20 = $160
• Hours 9 to 12: 4 × $30 = $120
• Hour 13: 1 × $40 = $40
• Total for the day: $320

Example 2: daily overtime does not count twice

Five 10-hour days add up to 50 hours. Each day has 8 regular hours and 2 daily overtime hours, so the week has 40 regular hours and 10 overtime hours. The weekly rule adds nothing here: hours already paid as daily overtime are not counted again toward the 40.

Example 3: seven days in a row

An employee works 8 hours every day from Sunday to Saturday, 56 hours in total.

• Sunday to Friday: 48 hours with no daily overtime, so 40 regular hours and 8 weekly overtime hours at 1.5×
• Saturday, the seventh consecutive day: 8 hours at 1.5×
• Result: 40 regular hours and 16 overtime hours at 1.5×

Alternative workweek schedules

Employers can adopt an alternative workweek schedule, such as four 10-hour days, through a secret-ballot election of the affected employees, following the procedures the state sets. Under a valid schedule, daily overtime starts after the scheduled hours instead of after 8. Without a properly adopted schedule, the standard daily rules apply.

Meal and rest breaks

California also requires a 30-minute meal period before the end of the fifth hour of work and a second one for shifts over 10 hours, plus a paid 10-minute rest break for every four hours worked or major fraction of four. A missed break generally costs one extra hour of pay at the regular rate. Record breaks accurately; they affect both hours and penalties.

How KronosTeam calculates it

Choose the California preset under Settings → Payroll. KronosTeam applies daily overtime after 8 hours, double time after 12, the weekly 40-hour rule on the remaining regular hours, and the seventh-day rule when someone works all seven days of the workweek. The workday runs from midnight to midnight in your time zone, and you set the day the workweek starts. The example week on the settings page shows how each hour is paid before you save.