Employers can require non-exempt employees to take breaks. Employers can discipline employees for not taking breaks. A few states allow employers to choose between giving a meal break or rest breaks, or require only that employers provide employees enough break time to use the restroom.
Working Time and Breaks
Employers may have a difficult time figuring out which employees should take breaks. There’s no federal law requiring breaks, but that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. While breaks are good practice, breaks may be required based on: which state you’re in, employee age, job duties, company policy on breaks, and/or scheduled work hours.
Because no federal law requires breaks, state laws regulate them. Employers must make breaks available, but need not ensure employees take them. Employers may require paid rest breaks be taken on work premises but can’t prevent unpaid lunch breaks off premises. Meal breaks should be after 5 hours of work, rest breaks between start of work and lunch break and between lunch break and end of workday.
Compensation for Breaks
For example, employers must pay for fairly short breaks and for employees who work through breaks. Only 9 states require any rest breaks. These rules just require that employers who offer breaks must pay for break time, in some situations. Less than half of states require meal breaks. Employees working more than 5-6 consecutive hours typically must get half an hour to eat.
Rest Break Penalties
If your employer refuses you meal breaks and rest breaks, you are entitled to a penalty of one hour’s wages for each day you were denied rest breaks and an additional penalty of one hour’s wages for each day you were denied meal breaks (maximum penalty of 2 hours payment per day).
Employees may voluntarily elect to skip their break, but if the company forces the worker to skip the break, that employee is owed one additional hour of premium pay as a penalty.
Employers can say when employees take rest breaks during work time as long as: the break is taken in one go somewhere in the middle of the day (not at the beginning or end) workers are allowed to spend it away from their desk or workstation (i.e. away from where they actually work).
The law states that workers are only entitled to a 20-minute break if they are working over six hours. You are generally entitled to: A 30-minute break if you work more than 4 hours and 30 minutes per day.
California Break Laws
California requires employers to provide a 30-minute meal break once the employee has worked five hours. The California Supreme Court has held that employers are required to provide a meal and rest break to their employees but the employer is not required to monitor whether or not those breaks are used. If your employer denies you a break, or does not pay you during your rest break, they can suffer the consequences.
Legal Consequences for Denying Breaks
In fact, if your employer does not comply with California meal and rest break laws, they can be required to pay you for one extra hour of regular pay for each workday on which a violation occurred.
Rest Breaks in Different States
Employers face decisions around staffing and benefits when the economy is unstable. Only 9 states require any rest breaks. Less than half of states require meal breaks. Employers must make breaks available, but need not ensure employees take them.
Rest breaks should be between start of work and lunch break and between lunch break and end of workday. For every day that the employer failed to provide legally-required meal and rest breaks you may be entitled to an hour of pay for each missed break. These are called premium wages.
If your employer refuses you meal breaks and rest breaks, they can suffer the consequences. Once you have worked a 6 hour shift you are entitled to a 20 minute break. The break does not have to be paid, and the employer is only obligated to give you one break per shift.
Your employer’s responsibility is to provide the opportunity for you to have an uninterrupted 30-minute meal break, but whether to take a lunch break is up to you.