On July 20, 1999, Governor Gray Davis signed a new law restoring the daily overtime requirement for California. The new law requires employers to pay workers 1 1/2 times the normal rate for working more than eight (8) hours a day and double pay for working more than twelve (12) hours a day.
The law allows workers to agree, by a two thirds vote, to flexible work schedules under which they would work up to ten (10) hours a day in a forty (40) hour work week without getting daily overtime. If the employer agrees, workers also can take personal time off and make it up later in the week without overtime, as long as they work no longer than eleven (11) hours per day.
Many salaried employees, as well as unionized employees protected by labor contracts, will be exempt from the new law.
The law takes effect January 1, 2000.