Why is the games industry so burdened with crunch? It starts with labor laws.

What might have been a turning point for developers was erased when in 2008 then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new set of overtime exemption rules for computer workers in California, shifting the overtime exemption down from $49.77 an hour or $103,521 a year, to $36 an hour or $75,000 a year. This new rule moved the overtime threshold below the average salaries for many in the games industry -- the average salary for programmers in 2007 was $80,886 and $77,131 for producers -- and it included subtle changes to the language describing the specific kinds of work that could qualify for the exemption to make it more broadly applicable. Labor advocates described the move as a concession to help tech and entertainment companies minimize their overtime liabilities and encourage them to keep jobs in California instead of moving their operations to places with aggressive tax credits and lower cost of doing business, especially Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.