Attention It Pros: The California New Overtime Law – What’S The Impact?
California overtime laws were created to protect the California workforce and ensure an employee’s standard of living with a reasonable work week schedule. In keeping with this "reasonable" work week concept, there were also strict guidelines for California overtime wages established to protect California employees. In general, under California overtime laws, if a non-exempt employee works more than 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week, they are entitled to California overtime wages. This means that they will be paid 1.5 times their regular hourly pay for every hour over 8 hours in a day but less than 12 hours or 40 hours in a week. These California overtime laws help to regulate employers who may force an unreasonable work week schedule by requiring that the hours be paid "at a premium rate of pay" and not just the standard hourly rate. Additionally, this premium rate of pay compensates a California worker in a more equitable manner for working hours that are deemed to be "more than the acceptable norm" and thus infringe on their personal and family lives. California overtime laws serve as an employer monitoring mechanism, and an employee reward system, if you will.
In recent years California overtime laws stated that highly skilled technology workers earning less than $75,000 a year, or $36 an hour, were entitled to California overtime wages. Many employers took this to mean that as long as they paid their IT workers $75,000 a year they would be exempt from paying California overtime wages. However, many California labor law attorneys have argued that because California overtime laws clearly state "or $36 an hour" this makes the employer responsible for keeping track of the hours worked by the IT professional. These documented hours are then used to verify that the technology worker was earning "at least $36 an hour".
In September of 2008, California Governor Schwarzenegger signed into effect the California new overtime law for IT professionals. This law says employers can now meet the overtime exemption by paying their workers a gross salary of at least $6,250 a month. This equals the same $75,000 per year when this monthly amount is annualized. Essentially the California new overtime law is letting employers off the hook from recording the hours their IT professionals work and allowing them to work their employees as many hours as they deem appropriate. The good news for employees is that this law is not retroactive and employees paid higher rates prior to September 2008, may still qualify for California overtime pay.
It has been speculated that the Governor’s reasoning for the California new overtime law stems from California’s budget crisis and its deteriorating economy. Some economists fear that once the state’s economy starts to revive itself, many IT companies will have already employed IT workers in other states because the cost of a California work force would be too great under the previous law. However, many IT professionals would argue that the Governor’s attempt to keep business in California by changing to the California new overtime law is really a step backwards for their profession’s individual employee rights. It is likely that California labor law attorneys will remain in the forefront of challenging any potential employment violations.
What the California new overtime law does not adequately address is whether or not bonus and/or stock options are included in the $75,000 annualized income figure. California labor law attorneys will likely be the only source able to successfully challenge this potential loop hole. It is important to note that as a California IT professional, you can go back up to four years to claim any unpaid California overtime wages. So even though this new overtime law just went into effect last September, if you are due overtime wages prior to September 2008, it is prudent to contact California labor law attorneys to help you claim the overtime wages that may be owed to you.
Lars Vheltzer is a freelance journalist who comments on California overtime laws and encourages California IT professionals to seek the advice of California labor law attorneys if employers may owe them California overtime wages.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Attention It Pros: The California New Overtime Law – What’S The Impact?