Valdez

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs Maricela Valdez, Maria Lupita Leon, Daniella R. Ibarra, and Victor Viorato filed a putative class action complaint alleging wage and other claims against their former employer, defendant Santa Lucia Preserve Company. Defendant filed a motion to compel arbitration based on an arbitration agreement each plaintiff separately signed while employed. The trial court denied the motion after determining that the parties’ arbitration agreements, which were identical, were unconscionable. On appeal, defendant contends that the arbitration agreements are not substantively unconscionable and that any unconscionable provision may be severed. For reasons that we will explain, we determine that the arbitration agreements are not substantively unconscionable, and therefore we will reverse the trial court’s order denying the motion to compel arbitration.

II. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. The Complaint Plaintiffs filed a putative class action complaint against defendant alleging violations of the Labor Code and California wage orders, including the failure to pay overtime compensation (Lab. Code, §§ 510, 1194). Plaintiffs also allege that defendant’s conduct…