Three hours. That is the fixed, permanent gap between Los Angeles and New York, summer or winter. Both coasts change their clocks on the same dates, so the offset never budges. What does change is the label: PST becomes PDT, and the UTC offset shifts from −8 to −7. If you schedule a January call using a July abbreviation, you will be an hour off.
Which states run on Pacific Time
Three states sit entirely inside the zone. A fourth is mostly inside it, with one exception that catches people off guard.
| State | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| California | Fully in PT | The whole state, all year. |
| Washington | Fully in PT | The whole state. |
| Oregon | Fully in PT | The whole state. |
| Nevada | Mostly in PT | Nearly all of it; West Wendover, on the Utah border, uses Mountain Time for economic reasons. |
West Wendover is the outlier. The rest of Nevada, Las Vegas and Reno included, runs on Pacific Time.
Idaho splits across two zones. The northern panhandle observes Pacific Time; the southern part uses Mountain Time. Because Idaho is not fully in either zone, it does not count as a Pacific Time state.
The cities that set the West Coast clock
Seven cities anchor the zone. Los Angeles is the largest. San Francisco and Seattle drive tech and finance. San Diego sits at the southern edge. Portland anchors the Pacific Northwest alongside Seattle. Las Vegas, far east of California, stays on Pacific Time. Sacramento is the state capital.
When PST becomes PDT
The switch follows the federal schedule.
- PDT (UTC−7) runs from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.
- PST (UTC−8) runs from the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March.
Clocks move at 02:00 local time. In March they jump forward to 03:00. In November they fall back to 01:00.
A January meeting uses PST. A July meeting uses PDT. The difference is one hour.
What the three-hour gap does to a workday
When it is 09:00 in New York, it is 06:00 in Los Angeles. When it is noon in Chicago, it is 10:00 in Seattle.
The stock market runs on Eastern Time. The New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ open at 09:30 Eastern, which is 06:30 Pacific. They close at 16:00 Eastern, or 13:00 Pacific. West Coast traders start early and get their afternoons back.
A 17:00 Eastern meeting lands at 14:00 Pacific: easy. A 09:00 Eastern call lands at 06:00 Pacific: less easy, and the reason West Coast desks are staffed with coffee by 05:45.
UTC offsets at a glance
| Season | Abbreviation | UTC offset |
|---|---|---|
| Winter (November, March) | PST | UTC−8 |
| Summer (March, November) | PDT | UTC−7 |
| Year-round (generic) | PT | UTC−8 / UTC−7 |
The three-hour gap to the East Coast holds steady all year because both zones switch on the same dates. Los Angeles is always three hours behind New York.