Makeup Time: The Narrow Exception Employers Stretch Into Wage Theft

California lets workers make up personal time off without daily overtime — but only under strict conditions employers routinely ignore while pocketing real overtime.

What California Law Says

Labor Code section 513 permits makeup time only at the employee’s written request for personal obligations, within the same workweek, capped at 11 hours a day and 40 a week, and never solicited or encouraged by the employer.

How to Fight Back, Step by Step

1. Check whether any makeup arrangement was your written, unprompted request — employer-suggested makeup time is invalid.
2. Verify the same-workweek limit; cross-week makeup owes overtime.
3. Recalculate daily overtime for every invalid makeup arrangement.
4. Include the corrected overtime in your demand.
5. File with your written communications attached as exhibits.

Common Questions

My manager offers makeup time instead of overtime whenever we run long. Legal?

No — employer-initiated makeup arrangements fail the statute, and those long days owe daily overtime.

I did request makeup time once. Does that validate the whole practice?

Only that properly documented instance — each occasion must independently meet the written-request and same-week requirements.