6.2 Wage & Hour Law, Overtime & Payroll Requirements

California Minimum Wage & Covered Employees

Field HVAC technicians, installers, and helpers are almost always nonexempt employees under California law -- they must be paid for every hour worked and are eligible for overtime, meal periods, and rest breaks. Job titles like lead installer or foreman do not create an overtime exemption; California's narrow executive, administrative, and professional exemptions require a specific duties test and a minimum salary threshold, not just a title.

California's statewide minimum wage rises each January 1 under a cost-of-living formula in Labor Code § 1182.12. Effective January 1, 2026, the statewide minimum wage is $16.90 per hour. Many California cities and counties set their own local minimum wage ordinances that are higher than the state rate; when a jobsite falls inside one of those jurisdictions, the contractor must pay the higher of the state or local rate for hours worked there. "Hours worked" includes all time the employer suffers or permits the employee to work, including mandatory safety meetings and required van-loading time before driving to the first stop -- there is no such thing as unpaid cleanup time for a nonexempt worker.

Daily and Weekly Overtime

Unlike the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which only requires overtime after 40 hours in a week, California layers on daily overtime rules that apply regardless of the weekly total:

Example: A service technician works a 13-hour day finishing an emergency commercial rooftop repair. The first 8 hours are straight time, hours 9 through 12 are paid at 1.5x, and hour 13 is paid at 2x -- even though the technician worked only one long day and may still be under 40 hours for the week.

The regular rate of pay used to calculate overtime is not always the flat hourly wage -- nondiscretionary bonuses, shift differentials, and certain other compensation can increase the regular rate. Some employers adopt a properly noticed and voted-on alternative workweek schedule (for example, four 10-hour days) that changes the daily overtime threshold, but this requires a formal election procedure; a contractor cannot simply declare a 4x10 schedule to avoid daily overtime.

Meal Periods and Rest Breaks

Nonexempt employees are entitled to:

• An unpaid, off-duty 30-minute meal period no later than the end of the 5th hour of work, and a second 30-minute meal period no later than the end of the 10th hour on shifts over 10 hours (waivable in limited circumstances).
• A paid, 10-minute rest break for every 4 hours worked or major fraction thereof, taken as close to the middle of each work period as practical.

IWC Wage Order 16 (covering on-site construction, drilling, logging, and mining occupations, including HVAC field work) allows a narrow on-duty meal period exception when the nature of the work truly prevents relieving the employee of all duty -- for example, a single technician dispatched alone to a remote jobsite. An on-duty meal period is only valid with a written agreement that the employee may revoke at any time, and the on-duty period must still be paid.

If an employer fails to provide a compliant meal or rest period, it owes the employee a premium of one additional hour of pay at the employee's regular rate for each workday the violation occurs, and meal and rest break violations are tracked separately -- up to two premium payments can be owed in a single day.

Pay Frequency and Payday Rules

Labor Code § 204 sets minimum pay frequency for most employees:

Weekly, biweekly, or semimonthly schedules that meet or exceed these timing rules are also permitted. Employers must designate regular paydays in advance and post the payday schedule at the workplace. Overtime wages earned in a given pay period may lawfully be paid on the payday for the following regular pay period if the exact overtime amount cannot be calculated in time -- but straight-time wages cannot be delayed on that basis.

Itemized Wage Statements (Labor Code § 226)

Every payday, employers must furnish an itemized wage statement showing required items including: gross wages earned; total hours worked (for hourly employees); all deductions; net wages earned; the pay period dates; the employee's name and the last four digits of their Social Security number or an employee ID number; the employer's legal name and address; and applicable hourly rates and hours worked at each rate, including overtime rates. Missing or inaccurate wage statements can trigger separate statutory penalties per pay period, on top of any wages actually owed.