California Appellate Court Issues Ruling Concerning "Regular Rate of Pay" and "Roundi

The California Court of Appeals recently addressed the following two issues: (1) Under the California Labor Code, does “regular rate of compensation” for calculating meal or rest break premium payments mean the same thing as “regular rate of pay” for calculating overtime premium payments? And, (2) Does facially neutral “rounding” of employee work time systematically undercompensate the representative employee and a similarly situated class of employees?

In Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel, the Court of Appeals held as follows: A worker’s regular rate of compensation for calculating meal or rest break premium payments is not the same thing as her regular rate of pay for calculating overtime premium payments. Moreover, an employer’s facially neutral policy for rounding employee work time does not systematically undercompensate its employees. (See, Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel - filed Oct. 9, 2019, Second District, Div. Three, 2019 S.O.S. 3095.)