California IT Overtime: Computer Programmers Taken Advantage Of

San Diego, CAA few years ago, when you first became a California software developer, you probably thought working with computers would be the best job ever, not the nightmare it became. In fact, if you are like many computer professionals, you have probably been asked to work many hours of overtime without proper compensation because you were misclassified as exempt. Now, computer programmers are fighting back, insisting that they deserve proper pay for working 80 hour weeks and putting their lives on hold for the sake of getting a product out on time.

How bad is it? Some computer programmers say they put in more than 80 hours a week—some up to 90 hours a week—do not get vacation days and frequently give up their weekends for their companies, all without being paid for that time. They are told that such concessions are a necessary and regular part of their job and that failure to work the extra hours means they are not "team players."

It would be easy to dismiss the computer programmers' complaints as being the whine of the overpaid professional—but that simply isn't true. Computer programmers might seem to make a great deal of money at first glance, but spread that pay out over 80 or 90 hours and suddenly, they are making a lot less. Then factor in the weekends that they spend away from their families, vacation time they never take and the stress they endure and suddenly, computer programming doesn't look all that appealing.

There are very specific rules in California that set out who is and is not exempt from overtime pay. In some cases, computer programmers are considered exempt, but in others, in cases that do not meet all the exemption criteria, the programmers are actually giving up their time for free when they should not be doing so.

And for what? The company benefits because it does not have to pay the programmers for their time. That's an additional 40 to 50 hours of free work; wages that would add up quickly. The truth is that this would not be acceptable if it was minimum wage workers expected to work overtime—when it becomes public knowledge that big companies have their lower-wage employees work overtime without pay, people become outraged and demand that the employer start paying workers fairly.

It shouldn't be any different for those computer programmers who are not actually exempt from overtime pay. California has stringent overtime laws to ensure that employees are not taken advantage of—that includes computer programmers. Now, the courts are siding with computer programmers who are misclassified as overtime exempt and awarding those workers the money they are due.

Not all employers purposely violate the law—California overtime law and exemptions can be complicated and the employer could be making an honest mistake by misclassifying certain employees. However, that does not mean that programmers should simply give up their right to be paid fairly. It means that those programmers should fight to make sure the law is upheld—and they receive fair compensation for their hours worked. After all, they work hard and they deserve to be paid for it.