Make-up time checklist — California Labor Code § 513
Static educational checklist — not a calculator. No punch inputs, no daily/weekly overtime engines, no live make-up-hour math. Spot common California make-up time red flags under Labor Code § 513 (and related IWC wage-order language such as 8 CCR § 11040(3)(M)). Distinct from alternative workweek elections (LC 511), FLSA public-sector compensatory time, fluctuating workweek, continuous-workday / reporting-time, meal/rest premiums, and discretionary-bonus regular-rate pages.
California baseline — what make-up time is (and is not)
California Labor Code § 513 lets a nonexempt employee who requests in writing time off for a personal obligation make up the missed hours in the same workweek without triggering Labor Code § 510 daily overtime for hours worked over eight in a day — except that make-up hours still count toward overtime if the employee works more than 11 hours in a workday or more than 40 hours in a workweek. The employer may not encourage or otherwise solicit an employee to request make-up time. Make-up time is not private-sector “comp time,” not an alternative workweek schedule, and not a federal FWW plan. This page does not compute daily 8/12, seventh-day, or make-up exclusions — it only flags compliance red flags.
Checklist — California make-up time red flags
No written employee request (or only a standing blanket form) for the make-up hours. Flag informal verbal “come in Saturday to make up Tuesday” deals, reusable one-time waivers reused every week, or supervisor-filled forms the employee never signed. Section 513 contemplates a written request by the employee for the time off / make-up arrangement each time — missing paper is a classic audit gap.
Employer solicits or requires make-up time to dodge daily overtime. Flag handbooks that push employees to “request make-up” whenever a shift runs long, scripts that steer workers into same-week make-up instead of paying LC 510 daily OT, or managers who condition schedule flexibility on make-up paperwork. Employer solicitation / encouragement undermines the voluntary character § 513 assumes.
Make-up hours scheduled outside the same workweek as the time off. Flag “take Monday, make it up next Monday,” biweekly true-ups, or PTO-style banks labeled make-up. The daily-8 exclusion is same-workweek only; cross-week make-up is ordinary hours that still face daily and weekly overtime rules.
Payroll still skips overtime after 11 hours in the make-up day (or after 40 in the week). Flag stubs that treat all make-up hours as straight time even when the workday exceeds 11 hours or the workweek exceeds 40. Section 513’s daily-8 carve-out does not erase the 11-hour daily floor or the 40-hour weekly floor — those hours remain overtime (and double time still applies under LC 510 where triggered).
Make-up time confused with alternative workweek (LC 511) or “4×10 / 9/80” election math. Flag employers who treat make-up requests as a substitute for a valid alternative workweek election, or who apply AWW daily thresholds to ad-hoc make-up days without an adopted schedule. Make-up time and AWW are separate statutory tracks.
Private-sector “comp time” or FLSA § 7(o) labels slapped on California make-up hours. Flag banked hour-for-hour or 1.5× time-off schemes for private CA employees marketed as make-up time. Public-agency compensatory time is a different federal doctrine; California private employers generally cannot substitute unpaid future time off for earned overtime.
Seventh-day / double-time interactions ignored on make-up Saturdays or Sundays. Flag a short weekday absence “made up” on the seventh consecutive day in the workweek with only straight-time coding, or make-up that pushes a day past 12 hours without checking LC 510 double-time. Make-up exclusion from daily 8 does not automatically sanitize seventh-day or >12 rules.
Manager-driven schedule swaps rebranded as employee make-up requests. Flag coverage gaps, early releases for employer convenience, or on-call call-ins later “documented” as employee-requested make-up. If the impetus is the employer’s staffing need rather than the employee’s personal obligation request, § 513 usually does not fit — look instead at continuous-workday / reporting-time and ordinary OT.
IWC wage-order make-up language and industry overlays skipped. Flag industries under specific Industrial Welfare Commission orders (for example Order 4’s make-up provision at 8 CCR § 11040(3)(M) and parallel order text) where payroll macros only cite LC 513 in the abstract and never check order-specific make-up conditions, recordkeeping, or coverage limits.
Missing request forms, time-edit logs, or stub coding that show which hours were make-up. Flag weeks where punches were edited to erase daily OT with no retained written request, no make-up code on the wage statement, and no workweek boundary documented. Part 516-style hours records plus CA wage-statement transparency make “silent” make-up edits a litigation magnet.