Irvine unpaid overtime
Irvine Unpaid Overtime Lawyer
Called an analyst, an engineer, or a coordinator and paid a flat salary for sixty-hour weeks? The title on your offer letter does not decide whether overtime is owed.
This page covers unpaid overtime for Irvine employees. For the statewide rules see California wage and hour, and for other Irvine claims see the Irvine hub.
The Irvine Jobs Where Overtime Quietly Disappears
Irvine runs on salaried office roles: software and hardware engineering, biotech and medical device work, finance and insurance back offices, and the campus employers around the business district. The pattern we see most is the same in all of them. Someone is given a salary, a professional-sounding title, and a workload that runs well past eight hours a day, and nobody ever tests whether the exemption actually applies.
An exemption is not a job title. It is a test of what you actually do, how much independent judgment you exercise, and what you are paid. Three separate things, and an employer has to satisfy all of them.
California Overtime in One Table
| Rule | What is owed |
|---|---|
| Daily overtime | 1.5x after 8 hours in a day |
| Double time | 2x after 12 hours in a day |
| Seventh consecutive day | 1.5x for the first 8 hours, 2x after |
| Regular rate | Includes nondiscretionary bonuses and shift differentials |
| Exempt salary floor, 2026 | $70,304 per year. Salaried below this means overtime is owed. |
Figures update January 1 and July 1.
Salaried Below the Floor Means Overtime Is Owed
The simplest exemption failure is arithmetic. California sets a minimum salary for most exemptions at twice the state minimum wage for full-time work, which is $70,304 a year in 2026. Paid a salary below that and the exemption fails on its face, whatever the title says and whatever you signed.
Above the floor, the duties test still has to be met. A coordinator who follows a written process, an engineer who does not supervise anyone and has no authority to deviate, a recruiter working from a script: all of those can be misclassified even on a comfortable salary.
Where an Irvine Overtime Claim Gets Filed
Two routes. A wage claim goes to the California Labor Commissioner, and the district office covering Irvine is in Santa Ana at 2 MacArthur Place, Suite 800, reachable on (714) 558-4910. A lawsuit goes to Orange County Superior Court at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana, with class and PAGA matters heard at the Civil Complex Center.
The two paths have different deadlines, different evidence rules and different ceilings on what you can recover. Which one fits depends on how much is owed, how many people it happened to, and what your records look like.
Find Out Where You Stand
Three questions and a phone number. An attorney reads every one, and you hear back within one business day.
Irvine Unpaid Overtime FAQ
My offer letter says exempt. Does that settle it?
No. Exempt status is decided by your salary and your actual duties, not by a line in a contract. An employer cannot contract out of the Labor Code.
I answer email at night from home. Does that count?
It can. Work an employer knows about or should know about is compensable, and that includes work done off the clock and off the premises.
I am paid a salary of $68,000 at an Irvine startup. Am I exempt?
Not on salary alone. That is below the 2026 exempt floor of $70,304, so the exemption fails before anyone looks at your duties.
How Far Back Can an Irvine Overtime Claim Reach?
Three years, and four where an unfair competition claim applies.
Employment Law Resources
- Labor Code section 510, daily overtime and double time: leginfo
- Labor Code section 515, exemptions and the salary test: leginfo
- California Labor Commissioner, overtime and wage claims: dir.ca.gov
- Orange County Superior Court, civil filing and locations: occourts.org
Tell Us What Happened
One business day for a response. You pay nothing unless we win.