Which States Require Daily Overtime for Caregivers?
California, Alaska, Nevada and Colorado require overtime after a set number of hours in a day. What each rule says, with sources, and what it does to 10-, 12- and 24-hour shifts.
By Caregiver Scheduling Team ·
Four states require overtime after a set number of hours in a single day, on top of the federal 40-hour week: California (over 8 hours, double time over 12), Alaska (over 8 hours), Nevada (over 8 hours in a 24-hour period, for workers paid under $18 an hour) and Colorado (over 12 hours). Everywhere else, a 12-hour shift is straight time if the week stays at 40 or under.
Which states have daily overtime rules?
Four, and each draws the line differently. Check the agency page before you build a schedule around any of them.
| State | Daily trigger | Source |
|---|---|---|
| California | Over 8 hours in a workday at 1.5x; over 12 hours at 2x; first 8 hours on the seventh consecutive day at 1.5x | California DIR overtime FAQ |
| Alaska | Over 8 hours in a day at 1.5x, for employers with four or more employees | Alaska DOL wage and hour FAQ |
| Nevada | Over 8 hours in a 24-hour period at 1.5x, only for employees paid under 1.5 times the minimum wage, which is under $18.00 an hour as of July 1, 2026 | NRS 608.018, 2026 Labor Commissioner bulletin |
| Colorado | Over 12 hours in a workday, or over 12 consecutive hours, at 1.5x | COMPS Order #40, Rule 4.1.1 |
In Nevada, an employee can agree in writing to four 10-hour days, and the daily rule doesn’t apply to that schedule. Colorado’s order took effect February 1, 2026. Our overtime calculator has a page per state.
Does federal law ever require daily overtime?
No. The FLSA sets no limit on hours in a day and requires overtime only for hours over 40 in the workweek (29 CFR 778.102). In the other 46 states, three 13-hour shifts in a week are paid at straight time. See home care overtime rules.
Does California’s 8-hour rule apply to home care caregivers?
Often not. Most agency caregivers in California are “personal attendants” under the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, and the rule for them is overtime after 9 hours in a day or 45 hours in a week, not 8 and 40 (California DIR). The law covers attendants employed by a private household or by a third-party employer such as a home care agency, with a few exclusions, including licensed health facilities and IHSS recipients (DIR FAQ).
Personal attendant status depends on the work actually done. A caregiver who spends a large share of time on general housework can fall under the standard 8-hour, 12-hour double time and seventh-day rules instead. Decide which rule covers each caregiver, write it down, and keep tasks consistent with it. See California caregiver meal break rules.
How does daily overtime change the cost of long shifts?
A lot. The same 40-hour week can carry zero overtime hours in one state and twelve in another. Here is a caregiver who works 40 hours, split three ways:
| Weekly pattern | Federal only | California personal attendant (9/45) | California standard, Alaska (8/day) | Nevada under $18 (8/24h) | Colorado (12/day) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 x 8 hours | 0 OT hours | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 x 10 hours | 0 | 4 | 8 | 8, or 0 with a written 4x10 agreement | 0 |
| 3 x 12 plus 1 x 4 | 0 | 9 | 12 | 12 | 0 |
At $18 an hour, eight daily overtime hours add $72 a week per caregiver, about $3,700 a year.
Two 24-hour shifts a week is where the rules bite hardest. In California under the standard rule, each shift pays 8 hours straight, 4 at time-and-a-half and 12 at double time, before any sleep-time deduction. See 24-hour home care shifts and live-in caregiver sleep time pay.
Do daily and weekly overtime stack?
You pay whichever calculation produces more overtime, and you never count the same hour twice. Colorado writes this into its order: the greater of the three calculations applies (Rule 4.1.2).
Example in an 8-hour state: a caregiver works 10, 10, 10, 10 and 6 hours, 46 total. Daily overtime is 8 hours; weekly overtime would be 6. Pay 8 overtime hours and 38 straight, not 14. All clients count toward the same totals. See overtime across multiple clients.
How should you schedule in a daily overtime state?
Build the schedule around the daily threshold, not just the weekly one.
- In 8-hour states, three 8-hour shifts cover 24 hours with zero overtime. Two 12-hour shifts cost 8 overtime hours a day.
- In Colorado, a 12-hour shift carries no daily overtime, but a late handoff at 12.5 hours does.
- In Nevada, get the written 4x10 agreement if you use 10-hour shifts, and know which caregivers earn under $18.
- In California, decide whether each caregiver is a personal attendant and schedule to 9 hours, not 8.
How Caregiver Scheduling handles this
Verified check-in and check-out times record the hours actually worked, not the planned shift. Timesheets that calculate daily and weekly overtime from those times by your state’s rules, and export to payroll and QuickBooks with the hours already classified, are coming soon. $199/month for up to 10 caregivers or $299/month for up to 50, free for 30 days.
FAQ
Does daily overtime stack with weekly overtime? No. You pay whichever calculation gives more overtime hours, and no hour is counted twice.
Do daily overtime rules apply to live-in caregivers? They vary. Nevada lets a live-in domestic worker waive overtime in writing; California has separate live-in rules. Check your state.
Is Nevada’s $18 threshold permanent? No. It is 1.5 times the state minimum wage, so it moves if the minimum wage changes. The Labor Commissioner posts a bulletin each year.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Check your state’s wage and hour rules.