Sarah Markley  |  October 18, 2016

Category: Labor & Employment

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Piece Rate EmployeePiece rate employees in California may not be getting paid minimum wage and employers may be in violation of the law.

Piece rate work is when an employer pays an employer, not based on the hours worked, but on the units completed.

For example, a construction company might pay a worker for the number of sinks that were installed at a job site rather than based on the number of hours that worker has worked.

This normally is a good deal for both employee and employer. The employee benefits because he or she can potentially make more money than he or she would if he or she were paid an hourly or weekly rate.

The employer also stands to do well because an employee, in this case, is motivated to work faster and be more efficient.

However, sometimes, the piece work rate for employees is not equal to what minimum wage might be. In this case, employers are in violation of labor laws.

Piece rate employees in California should be making the equivalent of $10 an hour, the state minimum wage. Sadly, many piece work employees in California make less than that.

These employees’ employment rights are violated if they are not paid an additional minimum wage for all hours worked, including downtime and other duties performed.

Piece Rate Employees in California

Piece rate employees in California, no matter what task they are performing, are entitled to at least minimum wage for hours worked.

The entire concept behind piece rate compensation is that the time an employee takes to finish a task does not affect the pay that he or she receives.

This works well as long as the employee does not work more than 40 hours in a work week and the employee’s total compensation for the week averages at least the acceptable minimum wage.

Effective January 1, 2016 employers of piece rate workers in California must now adhere to the following regulations when it comes to paying their employees:

  • They must pay piece rate employees for all rest and recovery breaks, as well as all other periods of “nonproductive” time. They must pay employees separately from and an in addition to their piece rate pay.
  • They must provide piece rate employees in California and other states wage statements that include the employees total hours of compensable rest and recovery breaks, the rate of pay for those breaks and the gross wages paid for those breaks.
  • They must list the total hours of other non-productive time, the rate of compensation for that time as well as the gross wages paid.

If you consider yourself one of the piece rate employees in California that believes you may have been unfairly paid, you may be entitled to compensation.

Join a Free California Sales & Piece Rate Worker Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you are a California employee who receives commission pay or gets paid on a piece-rate basis, but you have been denied additional minimum wage pay, your employment rights may have been violated.

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