Under the FLSA, some federal courts have held that the de minimis non curat lex principle excuses an employer’s non-payment of wages for small amounts of otherwise compensable time upon a showing that the bits of time are administratively difficult to record. This decision holds that the de minimis doctrine does not apply generally to an employer’s duty to pay wages for all compensable time under California law. While it might excuse some non-payment of wages when the compensable time is so minute or irregular that it is unreasonable to expect the time to be recorded, the de minimis doctrine cannot excuse non-payment of wages under the circumstances of this case—where Starbucks regularly required several minutes of uncompensated time “off the clock.”
California Supreme Court (Liu, J.; Kruger, J., concurring); July 26, 2018; 2018 Cal. LEXIS 5312