Gonzalez

In this wage and hour class action, the issue presented is whether California’s minimum wage law requires an employer that compensates its automotive service technicians on a “piece-rate” basis for repair work must also pay those technicians a separate hourly minimum wage for time spent during their workshifts waiting for vehicles to repair or performing other nonrepair tasks directed by the employer. The employer contends it was not required to pay the technicians a separate hourly minimum wage for such time because it ensured that a technician’s total compensation for a pay period never fell below what the employer refers to as the “minimum wage floor”—the total number of hours the technician was at work during the pay period (including hours spent waiting for repair work or performing nonrepair tasks), multiplied by the applicable minimum wage rate. The employer did so by supplementing a technician’s pay, if necessary, to cover any shortfall between the technician’s piece-rate wages and the minimum wage floor.

The trial court concluded that the employer’s method of compensation violated the minimum wage law because California law does not allow an employer to avoid…