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california meal and rest break law Sometimes, an employee may complete their work but not receive the pay they are entitled to. For this reason, the employer may be required to pay the back time. Back time pay is the amount of money owed to an employee but was not paid by the employer. This can include benefits such as increment, overtime, or bonus as well as past wages to which an employee is entitled to but did not receive. In California, back pay is similar to unpaid wages only that back pay is usually calculated after its determined that the employer violated some wages or hour laws. california overtime law For instance, the employee may have been underpaid for work completed in the past if the employer improperly calculated the paycheck. The amount the employee was entitled to may be recalculated by the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) and then the employee will be notified that he or she should receive back time. The employee may also notice the miscalculation and request for back pay. The back pay may be in the amount of the employee’s total unpaid hours times the hourly wage. Generally, back pay or back time in California is the wage and hour law violations that involve improper or under-calculation of the amount of money owed to the employee. This may involve:
* Unpaid meal and rest breaks
* Overtime violations
* Minimum wage violations
* Exempt misclassification
* Unpaid sick leave
* Unpaid reimbursements
* Illegal payroll h2deductions
* “Off the clock” work
Understanding How Much Money is owed in Back Time Pay, Penalties, and Interest
meal and rest breaks for salaried exempt workers The amount of money owed for back wages and back pay may depend on the actions of the employer and the type of violation. If there was no intentional wrongdoing and the back pay was due to a mistake, you may be entitled to:
* The unpaid wages as a result of the miscalculation, and
* An interest of up to 10% per year on the unpaid wages
The employer may also owe penalties and damages for labor code violations that resulted in back pay and unpaid wages. Back time payment, in this case, may include:
* The unpaid wages as a result of the miscalculation, and
* An interest of up to 10% per year on the unpaid wages
* If you did not get rest breaks and meal breaks, your employer may owe you one hour’s wages for each break that you missed
* Reasonable court costs and attorney’s fees Conversely, if the violations were not due to a good faith error and your employer intentionally underpaid you, you may be entitled to double damages.
Overtime Back Pay
California has a daily overtime standard that requires employers to pay employees who are eligible to earn overtime for every hour over eight they work in a day. The state requires that overtime be paid even if it was not authorized in the first place. Multiple court rulings in California show that the courts have established that the employer has a responsibility to know the number of hours that the employee should work, and should as well notify them to stop working when their work hours are over. This, therefore, makes employers liable for the accumulated overtime hours.
Also, employees have the right to overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours in a week, such as when they have to work for more than eight hours a day or for more than five days in a week. In addition, employees are entitled to time-and-a-half pay if they work for seven consecutive days in a workweek. The pay covers the first eight hours of work on the seventh day. As such, if your employer didn’t pay or count you for overtime hours, your back pay award would include time and a half your usual hourly rate for every overtime hours worked. You may also be entitled to double time if you work more than eight hours on the seventh consecutive day or more than 12 hours in one day.
Not all employees are entitled to earn overtime back pay. Hourly, nonexempt employees are eligible but other categories of employees are not. The most common exemptions are for white-collar employees who do professional, high-level administrative and managerial work as well as outside salespeople. As such, you’re entitled to overtime unless your employer can show that you fit into these exemptions.
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