On July 26, 2018, the California Supreme Court issued another highly anticipated opinion in Troester v. Starbucks Corp., clarifying application of the federal de minimis doctrine to claims for unpaid wages under California law. Federal courts have long applied the de minimis doctrine to excuse the payment of wages for small amounts of otherwise compensable time upon a showing that the bits of time are administratively difficult to record.

The California Supreme Court held that California’s wage and hour statutes and regulations do not adopt the federal de minimis doctrine, and that California’s de minimis rule was not applicable in the context of an alleged policy requiring employees to work minutes off the clock routinely. The court left open the question of whether there might be wage claims involving employee activities that were so irregular or brief in duration that it would not be reasonable to require employers to compensate employees for the time spent on such activities.