USA and Canada past and future DST schedules here. California is in the Pacific Time Zone in the United States of America (USA). US Pacific Standard Time ( PST ) is 8 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time ( GMT-8 ). Like most states in the USA, Daylight-Saving Time ( DST) is observed in California , where the time is shifted forward by 1 hour to Pacific Daylight Time ( PDT ); which is 7 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time ( GMT-7 ).