Past 40 hours per week, the rate is 1.5× — but daily OT often controls.
California's weekly OT trigger fires after 40 hours per workweek — same as federal FLSA. The difference: California's daily OT often produces a higher premium first. The anti-pyramiding rule says whichever calculation gives the worker more money controls.
Weekly Overtime
Calculates 1.5× pay for any hour worked over 40 in a workweek. Compared against daily OT calculation; the higher premium controls.
What the rule does at hour 40 of a workweek.
The hero card configuration: Avoid on schedule past 40 hrs/week, Flag on payroll close. Here's what each does at runtime.
When a worker is scheduled for hours that would put them over 40 in the workweek, the schedule preview shows the projected weekly OT cost. Cost-aware scheduling, not blocking.
At payroll close, Teambridge compares daily OT total to weekly OT total per worker. If weekly OT is higher (more premium hours), it controls. The pay stub tags hours as weekly OT in that case.
Deploy CA weekly OT in your Teambridge.
Tell us about your workforce. We'll spin up California weekly OT and anti-pyramiding logic — alongside the other 20 California policies — in a sandbox tenant.
Standard 40-hour weekly trigger — but California's anti-pyramiding rule means daily OT often controls instead.
Weekly OT in California works the same as the federal FLSA — 1.5× after 40 hours per workweek. What's different is how it interacts with the daily OT rule.
Workweek is fixed, not rolling
A workweek under California law is a fixed, recurring 168-hour period starting at the same time each week. The employer designates the start (commonly Sunday at midnight) but cannot shift it to evade OT obligations. Different workweeks per worker are allowed but each must remain fixed.
Anti-pyramiding example
A worker logs 12 hours Monday, 12 hours Tuesday, 8 hours Wednesday-Friday — 56 hours total. Daily OT calculation: 4 hours past 8 on Monday + 4 hours past 8 on Tuesday = 8 OT hours, plus 4 of those Tuesday hours past 12 = DT. Weekly OT calculation: 16 hours past 40 = 16 OT hours. The employee gets the higher of the two: weekly produces more OT hours, so it controls — unless the daily DT bumps the daily total higher when factored in.
Teambridge runs both calculations and pays the controlling one.
Determining which trigger controls is a per-worker, per-week comparison. Teambridge runs it automatically.
Fixed workweek per location.
Each location's workweek boundary is configured once. Per-worker hours are tallied against that boundary, with consecutive-day tracking layered on for 7th-day rules.
Both calculations run.
For every worker, every payroll period: daily OT total + DT total compared against weekly OT total. The calculation producing the higher premium controls.
Hours tagged with controlling trigger.
Each premium hour on the pay stub tags with which trigger fired (daily 8hr, daily 12hr DT, 7th-day 1.5×, 7th-day DT, weekly 40hr). § 226 itemization.
Weekly OT projected on schedule view.
When publishing a weekly schedule, Teambridge surfaces projected weekly OT per worker — informing scheduling decisions before they're made.
Still evaluating? Get a free California compliance audit.
Send us your existing California scheduling and pay configuration. Our compliance team returns a written audit within 5 business days — every California-specific exposure ranked by risk and back-pay liability.