In Peabody v Time Warner Cable, the Court held that an employer may not attribute commission wages paid in one pay period to other pay periods in order to satisfy California’s compensation requirements. The plaintiff sued asserting that she earned salary plus commissions based on her monthly sales and that she was paid her salary biweekly and paid commissions monthly. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals asked the California Supreme Court whether an employer can average an employee’s commission payments over certain pay periods to satisfy the compensation requirements of California commission sales exemption.  The California Supreme Court sated no. It held that Labor Code section 204 requires employers to pay wages no less than semimonthly, and Time Warner could not apply commission wages to a monthly, rather than semimonthly, pay period. TWC was not permitted to attribute the commission wages paid in one pay period to an earlier pay period.

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