An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 6 – Wage And Hour Laws

The first eight hours worked on such a day must be compensated at a rate of no less than one and one-half an employee’s regular rate of pay. 633 Any work in excess of eight hours on such a day shall be compensated at a rate of no less than twice an employee’s regular rate of pay. 634 Where the seven consecutive days of work stretch across more than one workweek, premium compensation is not required. 635 Where an employee works no more than thirty hours in a workweek or no more than six hours in any one day thereof, a school is not required to pay premium compensation for hours worked on the seventh consecutive day of the employee’s designated workweek. 636 LCW Practice Advisor

California Labor Code section 551 entitles non-exempt employees to one day of rest in seven. Schools should apprise employees of their entitlement to a day of rest and should not encourage their employees to forgo rest or conceal an employee’s right to rest. However, where an employee freely chooses to work a seventh day and a school has not caused the work, a school must pay the employee for all hours worked but will not be liable for failing to provide a day of rest. 637

B. A LTERNATIVE W ORKWEEK E LECTIONS California law allows schools to adopt alternative workweeks that allow employees to work more than eight hours in a workday without overtime pay.

1. T YPES O F A LTERNATIVE W ORKWEEK S CHEDULES a. Basic Requirements

Employees who choose to adopt a regularly scheduled alternative workweek are permitted to work up to 10 hours per workday within a 40-hour workweek without the payment of overtime. 638 However, an affected employee working longer than eight hours but not more than 12 hours in a workday pursuant to an alternative workweek schedule must be paid overtime for any work in excess of the regularly scheduled hours established by the alternative workweek agreement, and for any work in excess of 40 hours per week. The rate of compensation must be no less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay of the employee. A sample alternative workweek could be a workweek of four days of nine (9) hours and one day of four (4) hours. 639 Another example would be a workweek of three days of twelve (12) hours and one day of six (6) hours as long as the employer paid the time and one-half overtime premium pay for six (6) hours each week (since the employee worked 12 hours three days in the workweek, which results in two hours of overtime on each of those days). 640 An overtime rate of compensation of no less than double the regular rate of pay of the employee must be paid for any work in excess of 12 hours per day and for any work in excess of eight hours on those days worked beyond the regularly scheduled workdays established by the alternative workweek agreement. 641

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 177