Amazon’s Pennsylvania Loss Boosts Fever Check, Other Wage Suits

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling that Amazon.com Inc. must compensate workers for time in security lines handed plaintiffs’ lawyers a pair of powerful new weapons to wield in wage-and-hour lawsuits targeting unpaid time, such as claims for Covid-screening pay.

Security-check time is compensable under state law because companies must pay employees when they’re required to be on site, regardless if they’re engaged in work duties, the state high court ruled July 21. Such time doesn’t need to be paid under federal law.

And perhaps just as important, the court also held that state wage law doesn’t recognize an exception for ...