The California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) presumes a seven-day workweek is Sunday through Saturday and a 24-hour workday is 12:01 a.m. to 12 midnight. However, employers may define their seven-day workweek or 24-hour workday differently based on business need.

For example, you might choose to define your workweek as Monday through Sunday. An employee could work ten, 8-hour days in a row — from Wednesday of the first workweek to Friday of the next workweek — without receiving overtime pay. Five of those days are in one workweek and five are in the next workweek. The employee did not exceed 40 hours in a single workweek, nor 8 hours in a single workday. You pay them the straight hourly wage for all hours worked in that ten-day period.

Workday Defined

A “workday” is any consecutive 24-hour period starting at the same time each calendar day.1 A workday is not based on the shifts an employee normally works; for example, 8 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The DLSE presumes a “workday” is the same as a calendar day (12:01 a.m. to midnight) unless your company specifically designates another 24-hour period, such as from 4:01 p.m. one calendar day to 4 p.m. the following calendar day.

You can define different workdays for different groups of employees. For example, you may wish to use the presumed calendar day for employees who work the day shift and establish a 12:00 noon to 11:59 a.m. workday for graveyard shift employees. Once a workday is established, it may be changed only if the change is intended to be permanent and the change is not intended to evade overtime obligations.

Daily overtime is based on the number of hours worked in a single workday. An employee on a traditional 12:01 a.m. to midnight workday could work 16 hours straight without being paid overtime, if they worked 3:30 p.m. until midnight and then continued working from midnight to 8:30 a.m. (this example assumes a 30-minute unpaid meal break in each workday).

Workweek Defined

A “workweek” is any 7 consecutive 24-hour periods starting on the same calendar day each week.2 Unless you specifically designate another workweek, the DLSE presumes a workweek of Sunday through Saturday.

The workweek can be different for different groups of employees. Once a workweek is established, it may be changed only if the change is intended to be permanent and the change is not intended to evade overtime obligations.

• Workweek designations that are not supported by legitimate business reasons, and are designed in a manner to primarily avoid paying overtime, are prohibited.

Cannot Define Workweeks to Avoid Overtime Pay

California employers cannot artificially designate the workweek in order to circumvent the statutory requirement to pay overtime for the seventh consecutive day worked in a workweek. Employers can only designate a workday or workweek that differs from the employee’s assigned schedule if there is a legitimate business reason for doing so. For instance, if the employer established an assigned schedule that ran from Tuesday to Tuesday, the employer cannot state that its workweek for purposes of calculating overtime is actually Monday through Sunday simply to avoid paying overtime.3

1. DLSE Enforcement Policies and Interpretations Manual sec. 55.8