An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 6 – Wage And Hour Laws

A “workday” is a consecutive 24-hour period beginning at the same time each calendar day, but it may begin at any time of day. 623 The start time of an employee’s workday need not coincide with the beginning of that employee’s shift, and a school may establish different workdays for different employees who work different shifts. However, once a workday is established, it may be changed only if the change is intended to be permanent and the change is not designed to evade overtime obligations. 624 2. D OUBLE T IME Any work in excess of 12 hours in any workday shall be compensated at the rate of no less than twice the regular rate of pay for an employee. 625 3. W EEKLY O VERTIME Any work in excess of 40 hours in any one workweek shall be compensated at the rate of no less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for an employee. 626 A “workweek” is any seven consecutive day period, starting with the same calendar day every week. It is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours or seven consecutive 24-hour periods. 627 Like the workday, an employee’s workweek need not begin at 8:00 a.m., or on Sunday or Monday. The workweek can begin at any hour on any day. However, once the beginning time of an employee’s workweek is established, it becomes fixed and regularly reoccurs regardless of the schedule of hours worked. 628 A school can have different workdays or workweeks for different employees or groups of employees. 629 a. Workweek Must Be Designated Schools are required to designate a workweek for each employee. A workweek is often confused with a work schedule. However, unlike a work schedule, a workweek designation must include the time of day and day of week on which the employee’s workweek begins, and the workweek will end exactly 168 hours later. 630 If the school does not designate a workweek, for enforcement purposes the DLSE will designate the workweek as calendar week, from 12:01 a.m. Sunday to midnight Saturday, with each workday ending at midnight. 631 Finally, the workweek may be changed only if the change is intended to be permanent and the change is not designated

to evade overtime obligations. 632 LCW Practice Advisor

An employee’s workweek is not the same thing as an employee’s work schedule. For example, an employee’s designated seven-day workweek could be from 12:01 a.m. on Monday to 12:00 a.m. the following Sunday. Within that workweek, the employee’s work schedule could be Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

4. S EVEN C ONSECUTIVE D AYS OF W ORK An employee who works all seven consecutive days of his or her designated workweek must be compensated at a premium rate for work performed on the seventh consecutive day of work.

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