Hello,

Is there a specific law that states how many hours between shifts before I have to pay overtime or double time for child care workers?
I have several employees who fill open shifts that require me to pay them overtime pay, and I want to be sure they are compensated correctly. Example: An employee will work a 2:00pm -1:00am shift (8 hours at regular pay and 3 overtime hours) and then come back and work a 6:00am-2:00pm shift. Leaving only 5 hours between shifts.
My specific question is: Is there a law that states how many hours they are off between hours worked-before Its considered a continuous shift?
I pay this example as double overtime as it hardly seems fair to work so many hours without compensation, but what does the labor law state for this circumstance?

We pay under the everything after 8 hours as overtime, and everything over 12 as double time.


Thank you for your time.

Overtime is paid by DAY and not by shift. Assuming you have chosen to define your workday as 12:01am to midnight, that offers some implications for overnight shifts.

An employee that works 4pm (wed) to 2am (thur) is actually working 8 hours on wed and 2 hours on thurs and therefore never actually hits OT on the same day.
However, if they come back to work on Thursday at 4pm again, they have already clocked two hours towards the 8 hour OT mark and will start counting again. http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Glossary.asp?Button1=W#workday

There is also something called split shift pay, which may entitle your staff for an extra hour of pay for returning to work again on the same day.

You'll want to check the employees classification to make sure we are talking about hourly non-exempt staff and check the relevant wage order for this profession http://www.dir.ca.gov/iwc/wageorderindustries.htm

"Split shift" pay is a function of the Wage Order specific to your industry. I actually have no idea which wage order that "residential child care" falls under. Possibly #2, the Personal Services Industry, although you might want to call up CA-DLSE to be sure on that.

http://www.dir.ca.gov/iwc/WageOrderIndustries.htm

I agree with the other answer on overtime. The entire overtime rule set can be found at:

http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_Overtime.htm

Thank you so much for your help!