California Supreme Court OKs More Generous Overtime Pay Formula (1)

Dart Container Corp. was wrong to use the cheaper federal formula for calculating overtime pay, rather than California’s standard, the state supreme court ruled, overturning a lower court.

The decision means overtime is likely to become more expensive for employers and more generous for workers, Joshua Rodine, a management attorney with Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Los Angeles, told Bloomberg Law.

The question before the court was whether overtime should be determined according to a formula adopted by a California labor commissioner policy and interpretations manual, or one laid out by the U.S. Labor Department in federal regulations.

“What the Division ...