The Saqui Law Group

Recent case law has established that employers must pay piece-rate employees separately for their “non-productive time”. Nonproductive time is time on the clock that is not spent actively engaged in the piece rate activity. Examples include rest periods, travel time, meetings, calisthenics, and heat illness recovery periods. As nonproductive time, employers must keep track of rest periods of and pay them separately from the piece rate. The rate at which employers must pay rest periods has not been conclusively established and is a current point of contention. For example, is the employee supposed to be paid at the minimum wage, a base hourly rate, or at the average piece rate earnings for the rest periods?