Is Working Off the Clock Illegal In California?

All employees in California have rights. California’s employment laws include robust protections against discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination. Among the state’s workplace protections is the right to fair pay for working hours under California’s wage and hour laws. California employers cannot ask their workers to work off the clock. Even a few minutes of work before or after regular working hours can quickly add up to hours of unpaid employment and sometimes unpaid overtime.

How Do Employers Make Employees Work Off the Clock?

A California employer rarely directly asks an employee to clock out and continue to work or to work before their hours officially begin, but they may use other methods to coerce unpaid work out of their employees. For example, they may ask an employee to come in early to turn on the lights and computers, stay to finish paperwork, or answer phones during their lunch break. They may compel an employee to attend meetings that extend past their paid hours. An employer may also pressure an employee to work off the clock by mandating that the employer’s paid hours stop at a specific hour, but then assign the employee an unrealistic amount of work to finish by the end of the day. Some employees may expect their workers to correct paperwork errors while off the clock. Then, because the errors were the employee’s mistakes, they may not realize that they do not have to correct the errors during unpaid hours.

Some employees work while off the clock without realizing it. For instance, if an employee frequently checks and responds to work emails while off the clock or at home, they are working for no pay while off-duty.

What Laws Does California Have to Protect Employees from Being Compelled to Work Off the Clock?

California’s wage and hour laws and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulate employers by putting laws in place to demand fair wages for working hours and overtime pay for any work over 40 hours per week. Any of the above employer actions resulting in an employee working off the clock is a violation of FLSA regulations. Employers may defend their actions in the following ways:

• Stating that the employee worked off the clock voluntarily
• Claiming that they didn’t know the employee was working after hours, before hours, or during lunch breaks
• Arguing that they never authorized off-the-clock work or overtime hours

None of the above defenses absolve the employer or excuse them from compensating employees for unpaid hours. Ultimately, an employer has the responsibility for putting policies in place to prevent off-the-clock work and the duty to enforce the policies and monitor employee’s hours. An Orange County unpaid overtime attorney can help you recover the wages that you are entitled to.

What Can an Employee in California Do About Working Off the Clock?

An employee who has accrued hours of unpaid hours by working off the clock may file a complaint with the Department of Labor. Under the FLSA regulations, an employee is entitled to collect up to three years of wages for unpaid labor. The regulations also require the employer to pay their employee’s legal fees.

Terminating an employee from a job due to their filing a wage and hour complaint is wrongful termination. Employers are not permitted to engage in retaliation. Protection from retaliation and wrongful termination is a workplace protection for all California employees.