Legal Question in Employment Law in California

Maybe. Maybe not. Your employer is required to have an established time for end/beginning of each work day. However, it does not have to be midnight. Depending on work needs, shift schedules, etc., an employer may pick a different time of day. For example, I once worked for a janitorial company. Their cleaning crews worked 6 pm to 2:30 am, with a half hour lunch break. So they had a work day end/start at 6 am. Six in the morning is probably the most common alternative to midnight. So if your employer has established 6 am as the time a new work day starts, you would not be entitled to overtime. The only rule about when the end/start time must be, is that it must be consistent. They can't move it around to avoid overtime.