Click here to subscribe to our Bowles Law e-letter
Click here to subscribe to our Bowles Law e-letter
California Labor Code section 515.6 exempts certain licensed physicians and surgeons from overtime compensation as long as they receive set minimum hourly rates of pay. The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) is increasing this minimum, effective January 1, 2018.
To avoid California’s requirements to pay overtime premium rates after eight hours worked in a day or 40 in a week, employers will have to pay eligible physicians and surgeons the minimum equivalent of $79.39 per hour, up from the current $77.15 rate.
To document qualification for this exemption, employers will need to pay the physician or surgeon the minimum hourly rate, keeping accurate track of hours worked. Physicians and surgeons paid on a lump sum salary (whether weekly or otherwise) will not qualify for this exemption.
Under Labor Code section 515.6 a doctor is exempt-from-overtime only if he or she is a licensed physician or surgeon “primarily engaged” (more than 50% of the time) in duties that require that licensure. California Business & Professions Code section 2052 specifies such duties, requiring a medical license for anyone who “diagnoses, treats, operates for, or prescribes for any ailment, blemish, deformity, disease, disfigurement, disorder, injury, or other physical or mental condition of any person.”
Employers relying on this exemption will of course need to implement this rate change by the January 1 deadline.
Licensed medical doctors may also qualify for other overtime exemptions, including the administrative, executive, or professional exemptions. Each such category carries its own distinct criteria.
For more information, please contact Tim Bowles, Cindy Bamforth or Helena Kobrin.
Cindy Bamforth
November 15, 2017
If you are an employer facing possible litigation, or have an employee issue on which you need immediate guidance, call us to set up a consultation, or submit your message.
NOTE: Use of this website does not make one a client of the Law Offices of Timothy Bowles (“Firm” or “Bowles Law”). Establishing an attorney-client relationship and the confidentiality that comes with it depends on the Firm’s prior confirmation that no factor, including any conflict of interest (for example, our representation of another party adverse to you), exists to prevent that establishment. If you have confidential information that you would like to provide a Bowles Law attorney, please communicate directly to one of our attorneys, in person, by telephone, email, fax or other written means. Do not use this website to offer or communicate confidential information about any legal matter.