Does piece rate pay law Labor Code section 226.2 mean that employers will need to track the number of minutes that employees actually take for their rest and recovery periods?

No. Section 226.2, subdivision (a)(2) requires that an employee’s itemized wage statement state “[t]he total hours of compensable rest and recovery periods, the rate of compensation, and the gross wages paid for those periods during the pay period.” (Emphasis added.)

If an employer has authorized and permitted two 10-minute rest periods during an employee’s work shift (see quote from Brinker above), the “compensable” rest and recovery periods are those that have been authorized and permitted according to existing law. That is the amount of time for which an employee must be compensated (i.e., the “compensable” period), and which must be itemized on the wage statement, regardless of whether the employee actually took only 8 minutes on one rest period (less than the amount of time that was “compensable”), or took 13 minutes on another rest period (more than the amount of time that was “compensable”).

Similarly, for recovery periods (“a cooldown period afforded an employee to prevent heat illness,” see Labor Code section 226.7), the employer will need to determine the amount of time that was “afforded” (i.e., authorized and permitted), which may depend on the circumstances. The amount of time that was afforded is the amount of time for which employees must be compensated (i.e., the “compensable” period) and which must be itemized on the wage statement.

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