If you have a full-time, minimum-wage job at Uncle Bob's Burger Balls and work eight hours a day, you get paid that minimum wage for eight hours, right? That's fair, isn't it?
But what if it takes you half an hour to get there on the bus every morning, and a half hour in the evening to get home again? Shouldn't you get paid for that extra hour, too? And be reimbursed for round-trip bus fare, as well?
After all, you wouldn't be commuting to Uncle Bob's and back home again every day if you didn't have the job, would you?
And what if it takes you half an hour each morning to bathe, brush your teeth, comb your hair, and don your Burger Ball tam and tunic? Shouldn't that be compensated, too?
If you didn't have the job, you might not even bother getting out of bed, much less bathing, and you certainly wouldn't be putting on that embarrassing outfit.
Speaking of getting out of bed, maybe employers should pay for a portion of your rest time, too. If you weren't so exhausted from eight grueling hours of flipping burgers and frying french fries, you wouldn't need nearly as much sleep.
If you find this dubious argument convincing, you might qualify for a seat on the California Supreme Court, which recently agreed to review an equally ridiculous class action suit previously rejected by a trial court and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Barista-turned-barrister Douglas Troester filed suit against his Starbucks employers for failing to compensate him for the few minutes he spent each day closing the store after clocking out, i.e., the time it took to set the alarm, walk out, and lock the door.
This is a guy who gets $15 an hour for pouring coffee into cups.
When Starbucks replaces Troester and peers with cheaper, more efficient robotic alternatives or shuts down its operations in California altogether, who'll be surprised?