Not Getting Paid Overtime. Is This Illegal?

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Hello, 

I am a new grad living in California who just got her first job at an LTACH. I work three 12 hr shifts a week. From my understanding, anything over 8hrs in a workday is OT pay. When I did my orientation I signed a paper agreeing to a pay rate of 42 hourly and OT pay rate of 63 hourly. On my paystub, all hrs worked are at the 42 hour rate. I talked to a couple of other employees and they say they never get OT pay. My understanding is the only way for an employer to get around OT pay for nurses is to hold a vote with all affected employees and for said nurses to agree to waive OT pay. I never voted on that or heard of such a vote occurring at my work place. Is this illegal? Should I contact the labor board? 

As several posters have already mentioned, California overtime laws are a different "animal" entirely; Fortunately for you, the differences between California regulations and other states' favors the employee.

In general, in California, working over 8 hours in one day or over 40 hours within the facility's specified 7 day work week (the employer can't keep moving the starting day around to avoid paying overtime) will get you Time and a Half; As calculated by your employer for a base pay of $42 in general you would receive $63/hr. HOWEVER, in general if you work over 12 hours in one day you should get Double Time for the excess.

California has a government entity called the State of California Department of Industrial Relations and their website contains an Alternative Workweek Elections Databank. You can easily search that database by your employer's name to find in some detail even down to the exact employee vote as well as the alternative schedule agreed to. If your  employer never had an election and/or never filed the required information, they would potentially have a real legal problem if they were paying no overtime for all that time over 8 hours worked by their 12 hr/day employees. 

But likely as not there WAS an election and the employees voted for a 3/12 alternative workweek schedule; in that case just be aware that even with an alternative workweek, if you go over 12 hours on a given day, my understanding is you should still get the double time rate for overtime computation not the time and a half rate noted by your employer.

I think a valid labor union agreement also can result in some differences/exceptions to the general rule.

If you have any remaining questions/concerns after determining your alternative week status and following up Department of Industrial Relations, you will need to seek the advice of an employment attorney. 

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Specializes in Hemodialysis.

Sounds like you need more clarification on the pay rate. I am in Cali and work at outpatient  dialysis. I get my base pay for the first 8, then time and a half for the last 4 and DT after that. I have always been paid this way, and the breakdown is on my paycheck. It is California Law to be paid this way so I would check with HR and contact the labor dept if you are indeed owed wages. 

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Specializes in ER, Occupational Health.
On 12/8/2020 at 2:47 PM, klone said:

Even outside California, this is not true across the board. It has everything to do with what pay rule a nurse was hired into, which is usually specified in the job posting. There can be a pay rule that over 36 hours is OT. Or a pay rule that over 80 hours in a 2-week period is OT (meaning, a nurse can be scheduled 50 hours one week and 30 hours the second week, and it's not OT).

In California, if the pay rule is 8 hours, then anything over that is OT. Many facilities in California practice that. It's facility-specific.

Exactly!  I also work in Michigan and have mostly worked where nurses are unionized, so the pay rule can be anything that has been agreed upon in the contract.  

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Specializes in Dialysis.
On 12/8/2020 at 4:53 PM, AnaBanana.RN said:

I understand, but what is confusing to me is I know for a fact that in California if you work over 8hrs in a shift the rest is overtime. Now there are ways for healthcare companies to get around that. I know one way is if they hold an alternative workweek vote. I looked into it and this company did not do that. I am trying to figure out if there are also alternative legal ways for them to get around this law. 

How do you know that the company didn't hold a vote? Just because no one who is there now never voted, doesn't mean it didn't happen eons ago. Just a thought. Most healthcare companies won't risk the lawsuit that will come from the labor board for botched OT. If it were me, I'd go to HR and ask. This way, you get it straight from the source, instead of guesses from coworkers, and strangers on the internet who don't know all of the facts. It'll set your mind at ease as well, as they'll give you the relevant info to your specific facility. If it doesn't jive, then start asking the deeper questions

ETA: OP, you noted that this company bought this facility in 2013. Perhaps its a rollover from prior to the purchase? Again, start with your HR for the right answer for your specific situation 

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