Every business that operates in California features slightly different practices regarding the compensation and motivation of employees. The pay and benefits offered by a company, as well as the culture of the organization, can play a major role in what kind of talent the company attracts.
Pay standards are important for those who work to support themselves and their families. Many workers receive an hourly wage in California, and others receive pay on a salary basis. In some cases, workers accept daily pay arrangements. Typically, daily pay arrangements seem simple and fair. However, the actual hourly wage that someone technically earns as a daily worker can end up dropping below minimum wage in some cases if they put in too much overtime.
Daily workers often put in a large amount of overtime without any extra compensation. Recently, the Supreme Court has clarified the overtime wage rights of workers who receive their pay on a daily basis, and that ruling might lead to new wage claims by some employees in a variety of industries.
What did the Supreme Court determine?
Workers paid on a daily basis, like those paid hourly, are typically eligible for overtime pay. Companies cannot force them to work incredibly long shifts every day without adding additional compensation in most cases.
In a case that involved a highly-skilled worker paid far more than minimum wage, the Supreme Court ruled that the workers should have received overtime pay for extra time worked, as their income was dependent on how much work they performed as opposed to having a guaranteed level of income regardless of ours worked as is the case with overtime exempt salaries.
Workers paid on a daily basis should therefore receive overtime compensation when they work long shifts and put in more than 40 hours in a single work week. Those who have long worked for a daily wage but have never received overtime pay despite putting in 50 hours or more in the average week may have grounds to negotiate for compensation with their employer or possibly pursue a claim in civil court.
Tracking and making sense of important updates to California and federal employment laws can help workers understand when they make it have grounds to pursue a wage claim with the assistance of a legal professional.