24-Hour Caregivers: When the Whole Shift Counts as Hours Worked

Around-the-clock caregiving generates enormous unpaid-hours claims, because agencies and families routinely pay a flat daily rate for a shift the law counts hour by hour.

What California Law Says

Personal attendants earn overtime after 9 daily or 45 weekly hours under the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights. On 24-hour shifts, hours under employer control are compensable; unpaid sleep carve-outs require actual agreements and genuinely uninterrupted sleep — conditions rarely met in dementia and high-acuity care.

How to Fight Back, Step by Step

1. Reconstruct a true 24-hour timeline: care tasks, monitoring duty, night interruptions.
2. Identify the employer — agency, family, or both jointly, a common dual-employer scenario.
3. Convert flat daily rates into effective hourly rates; compare to minimum wage across all compensable hours.
4. Apply the 9/45 overtime triggers to the corrected hours.
5. Demand from all responsible parties and file with the Labor Commissioner.

Common Questions

I get woken up three times a night. Does my sleep period still reduce pay?

Interrupted sleep undermines the carve-out — night hours with regular interruptions are generally compensable in full.

The agency says the family is my employer, and the family says the agency. Who pays?

Frequently both, as joint employers — name both in the claim and let the deputy sort out their shares.