California Unpaid Overtime Lawyer

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When the Hours Worked Were Not the Hours Paid

California overtime law is the strongest in the country. Employees earn overtime at 1.5x their regular rate after 8 hours in a day OR 40 hours in a week, double time after 12 hours in a day or 8 hours on the seventh consecutive workday, and special multiples for specific industries. Employers violate these rules constantly — by misclassifying employees as exempt, by running employees off the clock, by averaging hours across pay periods, by failing to include bonuses and incentive pay in the “regular rate” for overtime calculation, and by ignoring the daily overtime rule entirely.

A California unpaid overtime lawyer is the person who recovers the unpaid overtime and the penalties California law layers on top. KBK Lawyers represents California employees in individual and class-wide unpaid overtime cases.

The California Overtime Rules That Get Violated

Unlike federal law (which only requires weekly overtime), California protects:

  • Daily overtime (1.5x) after 8 hours in a workday
  • Weekly overtime (1.5x) after 40 hours in a workweek
  • Double time (2x) after 12 hours in a workday
  • Double time on the seventh consecutive day of work after 8 hours
  • Overtime on bonuses, commissions, and incentive pay (folded into the “regular rate”)
  • Off-the-clock work (pre-shift, post-shift, training, travel, on-call)

A California unpaid overtime lawyer reviews the time records, the pay stubs, the job description, and the actual duties to identify every category of violation.

The Exempt Misclassification Problem

The biggest source of unpaid overtime in California is exempt misclassification — employers labeling employees as “salaried exempt” to avoid paying overtime even though the employee does not actually meet the duties test for any exemption. California exemptions include executive, administrative, professional, computer professional, outside salesperson, and a few others. The duties test is strict, and many employers get it wrong. A California unpaid overtime lawyer who has handled exempt-misclassification cases knows how to apply the test to the actual job, not the title on the offer letter.

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Why KBK Lawyers

Brian Kabateck has decades of California plaintiffs’ experience. He is a past President of Consumer Attorneys of California and a past President of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles. Our firm handles individual wage cases, PAGA representative actions, and wage-and-hour class actions across California.

 

Demonstrating a strong commitment to enforcing fair compensation, the firm secured a landmark $20.2 million class action settlement against Coca-Cola Bottling of Los Angeles. The major wage-and-hour lawsuit was brought on behalf of current and former employees, successfully holding the beverage giant accountable for widespread labor code violations, including the systemic failure to provide legally compliant meal and rest periods as well as proper compensation for all hours worked.

 

A California unpaid overtime lawyer at our firm pursues the unpaid wages, the statutory penalties, and the attorney’s fees the law requires the employer to pay when the employee

What You Can Recover

  • All unpaid overtime wages
  • Liquidated damages on certain wage violations
  • Waiting-time penalties up to 30 days of wages
  • Wage-statement penalties (Labor Code section 226)
  • PAGA penalties (75% to the state, 25% to the employee group)
  • Attorney’s fees and costs paid by the employer

Deadlines

California unpaid overtime claims allow three years (or four years under the Unfair Competition Law). PAGA claims require a written LWDA notice within one year. A California unpaid overtime lawyer at our firm reviews every deadline at the first consultation.

Frequently Asked Questions

The employer is required to keep accurate time records and provide accurate wage statements (Labor Code section 226). When the employer’s records are inadequate, the burden shifts to the employer, and the employee’s reasonable estimate of hours worked can carry the case.

No. California exemptions are duties-based, not title-based. Many salaried employees are misclassified as exempt and entitled to unpaid overtime.

A written agreement does not make an employee exempt if the duties do not qualify. The law looks at what the employee actually does, not what the offer letter says.