"I'm Salaried, So I Don't Get Overtime" - California's Most Expensive Myth

Quick answer: A salary does not make you exempt from overtime in California. To lawfully deny you overtime, your employer must satisfy both a salary test and a duties test. In 2026, the minimum salary for the executive, administrative, and professional exemptions is $70,304 per year ($5,858.67/month) — twice the state minimum wage of $16.90/hour. If you earn less than that, you are owed overtime no matter what your title says. And even above that number, your actual duties — not your job description — decide.

The salary test: a number that rises every January

California ties the exempt salary floor to the state minimum wage: exempt employees must earn at least twice the minimum wage for full-time work. Because the minimum wage adjusts annually, the exemption threshold climbs with it:

• 2025: $16.50/hour minimum wage → $68,640/year exempt floor


• 2026: $16.90/hour minimum wage → $70,304/year exempt floor

Every January, thousands of California employees quietly become non-exempt because their employer didn't raise their salary to match. If your paycheck didn't move on January 1, check the math.

Run the numbers: a real example

Say you're an "Operations Manager" in Long Beach earning a $64,000 salary in 2026, regularly working 50-hour weeks.

• $64,000 is below the $70,304 floor — so you are non-exempt as a matter of law. Your duties don't even matter yet.


• Your regular hourly rate: $64,000 ÷ 2,080 hours = $30.77/hour


• Overtime owed: 10 hours/week × 1.5 × $30.77 = $461.55 per week


• Over a year: roughly $24,000 in unpaid overtime — before interest, missed meal and rest break premiums, waiting time penalties, and wage statement penalties are added.

Claims can reach back up to four years under California's unfair competition law. The math gets large quickly.

The duties test: form doesn't matter, function does

Suppose your employer pays $72,000 — over the floor. You're still not automatically exempt. California requires that you be primarily engaged in exempt duties — meaning more than 50% of your actual working time — and that you customarily exercise independent judgment and discretion.

Titles are irrelevant. A "manager" who spends 60% of the day stocking shelves, running a register, or doing the same production work as the team is non-exempt, whatever the business card says. Courts look at what you actually do hour by hour, not the job description HR wrote.

Frequently asked questions

My employer says salaried employees don't clock in, so there's no record of my hours. Am I stuck? No. When an employer fails to keep required time records, California law lets employees prove hours through reasonable estimates and testimony. The recordkeeping failure is the employer's problem, not yours.

Can my employer just call me an "assistant manager" to avoid overtime? It can try — this is one of the most common misclassification patterns we see in Long Beach, Los Angeles County, and Orange County retail, logistics, and restaurant workplaces. The title changes nothing if your real duties are non-exempt.

Can I be fired for asking about this? Retaliating against you for complaining about unpaid overtime is itself illegal (Labor Code §§ 98.6, 1102.5), and adds a retaliation claim on top of your wage claim.

What should I do? Keep your own record of hours worked, save your pay stubs, and get a free case review. Wage claims are subject to deadlines, and every pay period that passes matters.

Buchsbaum & Haag, LLP represents employees in overtime and misclassification cases throughout Long Beach, Los Angeles County, and Orange County. Free consultations: 562.733.2498. This article is attorney advertising and general information, not legal advice.