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Hourly Wages Laws in California

JAEFJAEF Unstoppably BaldRegistered User regular
edited May 2008 in Help / Advice Forum
I've seen or heard this from various sources, but now when I try and pin it down I can't find anything in federal or state laws from a search:

If an employee that is paid hourly is scheduled to work for any amount of time under 2 hours (or a 2 hour overtime block, ie a 1 hour meeting and then an 8 hour shift starting 3 hours later) they must be paid for at least 2 hours work for that period.

True? False? Why would I have heard this if false? A particular companies policy?

Any help is appreciated.

JAEF on

Posts

  • MrDelishMrDelish Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    from Google
    Per the California Department of Industrial Relations:

    ...

    Each workday an employee is required to report to work, but is not put to work or is furnished with less than half of his or her usual or scheduled day’s work, the employee must be paid for half the usual or scheduled day’s work, but in no event for less than two hours nor more than four hours, at his or her regular rate of pay.

    edit: also:
    Additionally, employers are not obligated pay reporting time pay under the following circumstances:

    1. If the employee is not fit to work.
    2. If the employee has not reported to work on time and is fired or sent home as a disciplinary action.

    MrDelish on
  • saltinesssaltiness Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    It looks like you only get paid for the 2 hours if you were normally scheduled for more than that. But if you were only scheduled for 1 hour and showed up expecting to work for 1 hour then you only get paid for 1 hour.

    saltiness on
    XBL: heavenkils
  • MurphysParadoxMurphysParadox Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    My interpretation:

    Lets say you do retail cashier work at a store. You come in at your normal time for your scheduled 8 hour day. Lets say there is a problem and half the cash registers stop working and you, being a 'lucky' one, are sent home after only 2 hours of working. My understanding is that you are entitled to 4 hours of pay. However, if it was 8 hours and you worked 1, you'd still only get 4. If it was 8 and you worked 5, you only get 5 because it wasn't less than half.

    The only time where this may work out best for you is scheduled for 1 hour and only working 15 minutes... therefore making 2 hours of pay for 15 minutes of work with a max of only an hour anyway. Unfortunately not many jobs pull this. I have a feeling the law is to prevent over-staffing and then using dynamic real-time workforce reduction techniques to screw people out of their money AND out of their ability to plan around work.

    In your case (according to my understanding), you're going to get 9 hours of work and you just have an unfortunate, mandatory, 3 hour break. Ask if you can phone into the meeting via teleconferencing options. Alternatively ask if you really have to be there and if it wouldn't just be easier to get meeting notes (granted, in this case you wouldn't get paid for that one hour).

    MurphysParadox on
    Murphy's Law: Whatever can go wrong will go wrong.
    Murphy's Paradox: The more you plan, the more that can go wrong. The less you plan, the less likely your plan will succeed.
  • ThanatosThanatos Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    JAEF wrote: »
    I've seen or heard this from various sources, but now when I try and pin it down I can't find anything in federal or state laws from a search:

    If an employee that is paid hourly is scheduled to work for any amount of time under 2 hours (or a 2 hour overtime block, ie a 1 hour meeting and then an 8 hour shift starting 3 hours later) they must be paid for at least 2 hours work for that period.

    True? False? Why would I have heard this if false? A particular companies policy?

    Any help is appreciated.
    I don't know about the minimum work time, but the latter scenario, with the meeting/shift should be considered a "split shift," and you should be entitled to an additional hour of pay (I believe at overtime rates).

    Thanatos on
  • JAEFJAEF Unstoppably Bald Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Which would mean that if the meeting in the morning was 2 hours or less it would be 2 hours payed, then regular pay for the rest of the hours worked yes? Thank you.

    JAEF on
  • TopiaTopia Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    MurphysParadox wrote: »
    In your case (according to my understanding), you're going to get 9 hours of work and you just have an unfortunate, mandatory, 3 hour break. Ask if you can phone into the meeting via teleconferencing options. Alternatively ask if you really have to be there and if it wouldn't just be easier to get meeting notes (granted, in this case you wouldn't get paid for that one hour).


    Would he not either get:
    - overtime pay for one of those hours for either a) 9 hour a day shift, or b) less than 8 hours between "shifts"
    - 2 hours pay (minimum amount) for that short shift (this also applies as extra hour to case b) above)

    Also, though, I don't think a business can MAKE you take a mandatory 3 hour (unpaid) break.

    Topia on
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