Unpaid overtime calculator. A California wage claim, sized at intake.

What the tool sizes

A lawyer screening a wage claim needs a fast, defensible number from a phone call: how much overtime went unpaid, how many meal and rest periods were missed, and whether the worker has left. This tool turns those answers into four California remedies.

Overtime and double time. Labor Code 510 makes eight hours a day's work. Hours over 8 in a workday, over 40 in a workweek, and the first 8 hours on the seventh day of work in a workweek are paid at no less than one and a half times the regular rate. Hours over 12 in a day, and over 8 on the seventh day, are paid at twice the regular rate. Alternative workweek schedules change the daily rule.

The regular rate. Overtime is figured on the regular rate, not just the base wage. The Labor Commissioner includes hourly pay, salary, piecework, commissions, shift differentials and nondiscretionary bonuses, and excludes discretionary bonuses, expense reimbursements and pay for time not worked. For a salaried nonexempt worker, the hourly rate is the monthly salary times 12, divided by 52, divided by 40.

Meal and rest premiums. If the employer does not provide a required meal or rest period, Labor Code 226.7 requires one additional hour of pay at the regular rate for each workday it was not provided. The Labor Commissioner says missing more than one rest period in a day still owes one hour for that day. The tool counts meal days and rest days separately, so a day with both missed adds two hours. That is the common reading; confirm it for your case.

Waiting time penalty. When an employer willfully fails to pay all final wages on time to an employee who quits or is discharged, Labor Code 203 continues the employee's wages as a penalty from the due date until paid or until suit is filed, for no more than 30 days. The Labor Commissioner computes it as the daily wage times the days late, counting calendar days, weekends and holidays included.

How the tool computes

1. Regular rate: the base hourly rate plus other nondiscretionary pay per week divided by all hours worked that week. This spreads the pay the way the Labor Commissioner treats a production bonus. A flat-sum bonus is divided by regular, non-overtime hours instead, which gives a higher rate.
2. Overtime: unpaid hours per week, times weeks, times the regular rate, times 1.5. If the hours were paid at straight time with no premium, only the extra 0.5 is owed. Double time works the same way with 2 and 1.
3. Meal and rest premiums: days missed per week, times weeks, times one hour at the regular rate, each.
4. Waiting time: the regular rate times the hours in a usual workday, times days late up to 30.

A worked example

A warehouse lead earns $24 an hour, works about 47 hours a week, and has 5 hours of off-the-clock overtime each week for 120 weeks. Twice a week she misses a meal period, and twice a week a rest period. She was fired and her final pay is still unpaid more than 30 days later.

• Overtime: 5 times 120 times $24 times 1.5 is $21,600.
• Meal premiums: 2 times 120 times $24 is $5,760.
• Rest premiums: the same, $5,760.
• Waiting time: $24 times 8 hours times 30 days is $5,760.

The total is $38,880, before interest, fees or penalties under other statutes.

How far back it reaches

Claims on a liability created by statute, which includes overtime and meal and rest premiums, generally have three years (Code of Civil Procedure 338(a)), and the Labor Commissioner applies three years to overtime, meal and rest claims. Labor Code 203(b) lets suit for waiting time penalties be filed any time before the limitations period on the underlying wages runs out. A claim under the Unfair Competition Law reaches four years back (Business and Professions Code 17208) for restitution of unpaid wages. Enter the filing date and the tool shows both look-back dates; if the weeks you enter reach past three years, part of the figure depends on the UCL.

What it leaves out

• Interest, attorney's fees and costs, which Labor Code 1194 allows on unpaid overtime and minimum wage.
• Wage statement penalties, PAGA penalties and liquidated damages. Use the PAGA penalty calculator for PAGA.
• Exemptions, alternative workweeks and collective bargaining agreements, which change who is owed overtime and when.
• Variation from week to week. Real claims are built from time and payroll records, week by week.

Related reading

The wage and hour damages guide walks the same remedies with records in hand, and the intake screening guide covers the questions that produce these inputs. The glossary defines waiting time penalties and meal and rest break premiums. PlaintiffStack's employment wage and penalty audit works from the payroll records in the file, and a person accepts each figure; see the employment practice page.