California split shift laws require employers to pay eligible workers a premium when work schedules are interrupted by unpaid breaks. Employees may pursue legal claims for missed premiums, interest, and damages if employers fail to comply with wage rules.
By Brad Nakase, Attorney
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A split shift is defined as a workday that is broken up by free time off that isn’t a meal break. If you start working in the morning, take a few hours off, and then work once more in the evening, you are working a split shift. You can be eligible for a one-hour shift split premium at minimum pay.
Several working shifts in a single workday that are broken up by time off are referred to as split shifts according to California law. This unpaid leave of absence cannot be a legitimate meal or rest break. The employer must set a work schedule.
According to the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, a split shift occurs when two shifts are interrupted for longer than an hour without payment. However, California courts have not embraced this rule. Nevertheless, the majority of employers adhere to it when allocating work schedules.
In the restaurant business, split shifts are particularly prevalent.
Julie, for example, works as a waiter. Her boss has her working from 11 am to 2 pm on Monday to assist with the “lunch rush,” followed by work from 5 pm to 9 pm for the “evening shift.” Julie’s hours will be split, but she will work seven hours a day.
To qualify as a split shift, you must take unpaid time off during your assigned working hours. Continuous shifts that start late in the evening and terminate early the following morning do not qualify as split shifts even though they stretch several days. The actual shifts aren’t interrupted, even though you might have worked both very early and very late shifts on the same day of the calendar.
Mark works as a security guard. He is given the night shift at his job. It runs from 10 pm to 6 am. This implies that Mark will officially work two nonconsecutive shifts on any given day of work. One from midnight to six in the morning and another from 10 pm to 12 am. But those two shifts themselves are not disrupted. They don’t have any split shifts as a result.
When an employer schedules a split shift, California labor law mandates that they pay you no less than the minimum wage plus an extra hour at the relevant minimum rate. This is the “premium for split shifts.”
For example, at her store job selling cell phones, Monique earns $16.50 an hour. It is the state minimum wage. Her employer gives her two 4-hour shifts. One from 8 am to 12 pm and the other from 3 pm to 7 pm. She is eligible to receive $16.50 for the split shift premium in California in addition to her regular hourly income of $132 (for eight hours at $16.50 an hour). It might be more if she works in a county or city like Los Angeles, where the minimum wage is higher.
Additionally, California employment legislation only requires businesses to give you the premium in addition to the minimum wage. Because you have already earned more than the legally needed amount, the mandated premium will be lower if your normal rate of pay is higher than the minimum wage. The split shift premium in California is added to your hourly wage if it exceeds the minimum wage. The entire premium is frequently swallowed by this difference.
For instance, Monique currently earns $20 an hour, which is $3.50 more than the minimum wage in effect. Once more, her employer assigns her to a split shift that runs from 8 am to noon, followed by 3 pm to 7 pm. After eight hours at $20 an hour, Monique’s pay has increased to $160. However, because she is earning more than the minimum wage law’s required minimum salary of $148.50 (eight hours at $16.50 an hour plus the $16.50 benefit), her split shift bonus vanishes.
An employee must be paid for each split shift they perform if they are eligible for the split shift premium in California.
The premium payment must be broken down by your employer on the pay stub.
Any overtime compensation to which you are eligible is unaffected by the split shift premium in California.
The split shift premium is yours if your employer assigns you to a split shift and you meet the following requirements:
Accordingly, you are not eligible to receive the split shift premium in California if:
You may bring a wage and hour case if your employer assigns split shifts but fails to pay the split shift premium you are due. These assertions require:
Employees may also be entitled to liquidated damages if their employer did not act in good faith by failing to pay the split shift premium. These are the sum of your interest and unpaid salary. Receiving them essentially implies that you may receive double what you ought to have received.
Even if the compensation rate for extra hours is not very high, the amount of work might mount up rapidly. Under California state legislation, you can be eligible for several hundred dollars if you consistently work split shifts and fail to get the premium payment.
These wage & hour law claims must be submitted within three years of the most recent nonpayment of the premium, according to the statute of limitations. You can easily have your lawsuit rejected if you don’t file it within this time frame.
Class action suits are a common outcome of these situations. Your fellow workers are most likely not receiving split shift premium pay if your company is not paying you.
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