Biggs

This appeal requires us to decide whether California violated the minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 201-19 , by paying wages 14-15 days late because there was no state budget, and thus no funds appropriated for the payment of salaries, on payday. The district court granted a summary judgment declaring that the failure to issue paychecks promptly when due violated the FLSA. We agree, and hold that under the FLSA wages are “unpaid” unless they are paid on the employees’ regular payday.

I

Payday in this case — July 16,1990 1 — came and went without highway maintenance workers employed by the State of California Department of Transportation being issued their pay checks. California was undergoing one of its perennial rites, the budget impasse. In 1990, State law prohibited the release of paychecks until a budget was approved by the Legislature and signed by the Governor. That didn’t happen until July 28, when the budget passed the Legislature, and July 31, when then-Governor Deukmejian signed it into law. The payroll was met on July 30 and 31, 14-15 days late.

William Biggs represents a class of highway maintenance workers who brought…

dissenting and concurring:

As I write this opinion, major cities and towns in four Midwestern states are under water. From Montevideo, Minnesota through Minneapolis and St. Paul, from Du-buque, Des Moines, and Davenport, Iowa through Hannibal and St. Louis, Missouri, the waters of the Mississippi River and its tributaries have disrupted the lives of almost everyone living and working in the area. According to.the Associated Press, 250,000 people in Des Moines are without drinking water, and 30,000 people have been flooded out of their homes in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. Businesses everywhere are closed. The interruption to everyday life caused by this natural disaster is similar in many respects to recent hurricanes in Florida, earthquakes in California, and drought in South Carolina: virtually everything stops except heroic efforts to survive and recover. I use this to illustrate the fact that unpredictable forces beyond anyone’s control frequently invade our lives and disrupt the orderly course of everything, including the normal operation of business and commerce. These forces do not respect the calendar, payday, or the Fair Labor Standards Act. On a lesser scale, people…