Wirth v. RLJ Dental, S.C.

Dist. Ct. did not err finding after bench trial that defendant-employer did not violate Wisconsin Wage Payment and Collection Law under circumstances where: (1) defendant had established one-hour lunch break that required plaintiff-employee to clock out and clock in; (2) despite defendant’s admonishments to contrary, plaintiff frequently clocked out of her lunch periods for less than 30 minutes; (3) defendant actually paid plaintiff for all time spent clocked in; and (4) plaintiff contended that defendant should have paid her for time than she was clocked out because it was less than 30 minutes. While Wisconsin statute required employers to compensate employees for rest periods less than 30 minutes, plaintiff was not entitled to compensation for lunch breaks of less than 30 minutes, because Wisconsin statute distinguished between compensable rest period and non-compensable meal periods of more than 30 minutes, during which employees are completely relieved from duty. Moreover, plaintiff could not transform her non-compensable meal period into compensable rest period.