Under California law, a “split shift” occurs when the employee’s work schedule is divided by the employer into two parts that are separated by a non-paid and non-working time period greater than one hour. If this occurs, then the employer may owe the employee a split shift premium. The premium is equal to one hour of pay at the rate of the minimum wage. Employees who earn more than minimum wage may also be owed a split shift, however, the greater the wage the lesser the premium. Moreover, split shift premiums must be separately itemized on the employee’s paystub. If the break between shifts is at the request of the employee, then the employer would not owe a split shift premium. If an employee earns $15 per hour and the minimum wage is currently $13 per hour, and the employee works for three hours, has a break for greater than one hour at the employer’s request, and then returns to work for another three hours, the employee would be owed a split shift premium. If this employee was earning minimum wage, then he/she would be owed one hour of pay at the minimum wage. However, because this employee earns more than the minimum wage, his/her split shift premium would be calculated as follows: the minimum wage for the employee’s work day is $91 (6 hours times $13 plus an additional $13 for the split shift premium. The employee, however, was paid $90 for his/her six hours of work. The employee is due $1 ($91-$90). In this situation, if the employee was earning $16/hour, he/she would not be entitled to a split shift premium because his/her pay would be greater than a minimum wage plus a split shift premium).
