Meal and rest breaks

Meal and rest breaks are the pauses in a shift — a short breather, or a longer unpaid meal period. In the United States they are the textbook example of state-by-state employment law: federal law does not require employers to provide breaks at all. It only says how breaks must be treated if they happen.

How it works in the United States

Under the FLSA:

• Short breaks are paid: breaks of roughly 5 to 20 minutes count as hours worked.
• Bona fide meal periods can be unpaid: typically 30 minutes or more, but only if the employee is fully relieved of duty. Eating at the register while covering customers is working time.

The actual entitlement to a break comes from state law, and the map is uneven. Roughly half the states require a meal break after a set number of hours; a smaller group — California most prominently — also requires paid rest breaks during the shift, with premium pay owed when a required break is missed. Other states require none at all, leaving it to employer policy.

For multi-state teams, this means break rules must be set per location, not per company. Auto-deducting meal breaks that employees did not actually take is one of the most common — and most expensive — wage-and-hour mistakes.

FLSA, 29 C.F.R. §§ 785.18–785.19 (paid vs unpaid breaks); break entitlements set by state law (e.g., California Labor Code §§ 226.7, 512) — see your state labor department.

Related terms

• Timekeeping requirements
• Split shift premium
• Fair Workweek laws