Payments For Missed Breaks Are Wages, California Top Court Says

The additional hour of pay California employers owe workers for missed meal breaks is subject to the state’s timely pay and reporting requirements, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday, in a suit over Spectrum Security Services Inc.'s wage policies.

The lump sum payments serve to compensate workers both for their missed work breaks and work performed during the break. “The extra pay thus constitutes wages subject to the same timing and reporting rules as other forms of compensation for work,” Justice Leondra R. Kruger wrote for the court.

Gustavo Naranjo sued Spectrum, which guards and transports prisoners to appointments outside ...