To help you stay compliant with state labor laws, ShiftCare can automatically calculate California's specific daily and 7th-consecutive-day overtime rules.
When enabled, the system automatically splits a carer's worked hours into regular, 1.5x, and 2.0x time on their timesheets and formats the data perfectly for export to Paychex.
This feature is only available to California-based users, and the setting is already enabled for new accounts. The export functionality is currently optimized for Paychex. Calculations apply going forward only, so past pay periods will not be recalculated.
Understanding the Overtime Rules
ShiftCare will automatically calculate overtime based on the following California state rules ("Highest rate wins"):
Daily Overtime: Hours worked beyond 8 hours in a single day are paid at 1.5x (up to 12 hours). Any hours worked beyond 12 hours in a single day are paid at 2.0x.
Overnight shifts are split at midnight, so each day gets the correct hours attributed to it.
7th Consecutive Day: If a carer works a 7th day in a row within your account's configured work week, the first 8 hours are paid at 1.5x. Any hours beyond 8 hours on that 7th day are paid at 2.0x.
Paid leave and public holidays do not count as "worked" days for the 7th-day streak. Sleepover shifts do not earn overtime premiums, but they do count as a worked day toward the streak.
How to Turn on Overtime
To activate these automatic calculations, you must turn on FLSA overtime and configure your Paychex export codes.
This feature is enabled for California accounts upon request. If your account state is set to California but you do not see the export code fields described below, please contact the ShiftCare support team to have the feature enabled for your account.
Navigate to Pay Items > Pay Groups from the sidebar menu.
Click the 'Actions' dropdown button and select 'Overtime Settings'.
Toggle on 'Turn on FLSA overtime'. Two new fields will appear. Enter your specific Paychex payroll export codes for both the 1.5x rate and the 2.0x rate.
Click 'Save'.
ShiftCare calculates and sends only the hours. Paychex will apply the actual dollar amount using the export codes you provide here.
Viewing Overtime on Shifts and Timesheets
When this feature is enabled, your timesheet views will automatically update to reflect the California rules.
Shift Details (Pay Breakdown)
When you open a single shift from the Scheduler, the pay breakdown will automatically split the shift into line items using California labor labels.
Because the breakdown uses full-day context, a shift only shows overtime once the day's earlier hours have crossed the threshold. You will see specific rows for:
Daily OT (> 8hrs)
Daily OT (> 12hrs)
40 hrs Weekly OT
This photo shows a shift with daily overtime and 40-hour weekly overtime.
7th Day Consecutive OT (<= 8hrs)
7th Day Consecutive OT (> 8hrs)
This photo shows a shift with 7th-day consecutive overtime.
Staff Timesheet
When you navigate to Staff > Staff Name > Timesheet, the table will display dedicated columns for California compliance:
Total Hours: All hours worked on the shift
Regular: Hours paid at the normal rate (up to 8 hours in the day)
OT 1.5x: Hours paid at 1.5x
OT 2.0x: Hours paid at 2x
OT Cost: The extra overtime cost for the shift
Exporting to Paychex
When you run your payroll (timesheet) export for Paychex, the overtime is automatically sent as two combined lines:
A 1.5x line: Combines daily overtime + 7th-day overtime.
A 2.0x line: Combines double-time + 7th-day double-time.
For further assistance with California Daily Overtime Compliance (Paychex), please contact our Support team using online chat when you're logged into ShiftCare or email our Support team at support.northamerica@shiftcare.com.