Are Lunch Breaks Paid? Federal and State Rules

Are lunch breaks paid? Under federal law, usually not. A real lunch of 30 minutes or more, with the employee completely off duty, can be unpaid. Short rest breaks of 5 to 20 minutes, including the classic 15 minute break, must be paid if you offer them.

Kloqk applies those same rules on the timesheet: each break is split into paid and unpaid minutes, and a break that runs past its limit gets flagged in plain words.

The details decide real money, though. An interrupted lunch is paid. A 20 minute "lunch" is paid. And several states require paid rest breaks the FLSA doesn't.

TL;DR

• Federal law doesn't require you to give any break at all. The Department of Labor says it plainly: "Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks."
• If you do offer a short rest break (5 to about 20 minutes), it's paid work time under 29 CFR 785.18.
• A bona fide meal period is unpaid under 29 CFR 785.19, but only if the employee is completely relieved from duty. Ordinarily that means 30 minutes or more.
• A lunch becomes paid when it's too short, interrupted, or the employee has to keep working (eating at the desk, watching the register, answering the phone).
• Break overruns can be unpaid only if you told staff the limit, told them overruns break the rules, and said overruns will be disciplined.
• California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Nevada, Minnesota and Kentucky all require paid rest breaks for most adult workers.

Are lunch breaks paid under federal law?

Not if the lunch is a bona fide meal period. The FLSA regulation on meals, 29 CFR 785.19, says bona fide meal periods "are not worktime." It also sets the conditions. The employee "must be completely relieved from duty for the purposes of eating regular meals," and "ordinarily 30 minutes or more is long enough." A shorter period can qualify "under special conditions," but that's the exception, and most employers shouldn't count on it.

Its examples of lunches that don't qualify: an office worker "required to eat at his desk" or a factory worker "required to be at his machine." Both meals are paid.

You don't have to let staff leave the building. Section 785.19(b) says that's "not necessary" if the employee is "otherwise completely freed from duties." A break room lunch with no duties stays unpaid federally (Washington is stricter).

So, do you get paid for lunch break time? Under the federal rule the answer is no when all three are true:

1. The lunch lasts long enough to eat a regular meal, ordinarily 30 minutes or more.
2. The employee does no work during it, active or inactive.
3. Nobody interrupts it to pull the employee back to work.

If any one fails, the lunch is hours worked, paid at the regular rate, and it counts toward overtime.

Are 15 minute breaks paid?

Yes. If you give a 15 minute break, a 10 minute break, or a 5 minute break, federal law treats it as paid time. 29 CFR 785.18 says rest periods "running from 5 minutes to about 20 minutes, are common in industry," are "customarily paid for as working time," and "must be counted as hours worked." The Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #22 repeats it: rest periods "usually 20 minutes or less" are paid as working time.

Paid rest time also "may not be offset against other working time such as compensable waiting time or on-call time."

Smoke breaks follow the same rule. There are no separate federal smoke break laws: a 5 to 20 minute smoke break is a rest break, so if you allow it, it's paid.

Are paid 15 minute breaks required by law?

Not federally. Federal break laws only say how to pay a break you choose to give. The requirement comes from the states: California, Colorado, Kentucky, Nevada, Oregon and Washington require a paid 10 minute rest break per 4 hours worked, and Minnesota requires at least 15 minutes in each 4 consecutive hours.

What about OSHA break laws or OSHA lunch break laws? OSHA is the safety agency and doesn't set break pay rules. Those come from the FLSA and state labor law.

When does an unpaid lunch become a paid lunch?

A schedule that says "30 minute unpaid lunch" means nothing if the floor told a different story. The common cases:

The lunch was too short

A 15 or 20 minute lunch is a rest period under federal rules, not a meal period. Section 785.19 is explicit that coffee breaks and snack time "are rest periods." Pay it. Kloqk treats any lunch under 30 minutes as paid for this reason.

The employee stayed on duty

An on duty meal is paid. A cashier eating behind the counter, a receptionist answering the phone at the desk: that's working time. The regulation says "any duties, whether active or inactive," so "just keep an eye on things" counts.

The lunch got interrupted

An interrupted lunch break isn't a duty-free meal. If a manager calls the employee back after 12 minutes for a delivery, pay the whole lunch or let the employee restart a full 30 minutes.

The employee skipped it

If an employee works through lunch, those minutes are hours worked. Auto-deducting a 30 minute lunch that didn't happen is one of the most common wage claims. Even 10 minutes a day isn't small enough to ignore: 29 CFR 785.47 lets employers disregard only "insubstantial or insignificant" time that can't practically be recorded, and it won't cover any part of an employee's "fixed or regular working time."

What can you do when a break runs over?

You give a 10 minute break and the employee comes back after 25. Do you owe all 25 minutes?

Under federal law, not necessarily. Fact Sheet #22 says unauthorized extensions of authorized breaks "need not be counted as hours worked when the employer has expressly and unambiguously communicated to the employee" three things:

• the break may only last a specific length of time,
• any extension is against the employer's rules, and
• any extension will be punished.

All three. Put it in your written employee break policy and apply it to everyone. Then a 10 minute break that ran 25 minutes is 10 paid minutes and 15 unpaid.

Check your state before docking overruns, and keep the actual punch times. A manager's memory won't hold up.

Meal break laws by state: which states require breaks?

Most states have no general break law for adults and fall back on the federal rules. These go further, each row from the state's own statute or regulation:

State	Rest break	Meal period	Key detail
Federal (FLSA)	Not required; paid if given (5 to 20 min)	Not required; unpaid if 30+ min and fully relieved	Overruns can be unpaid with a clear written rule
California	10 min paid per 4 hours or major fraction; none under 3.5 hours	30 min after more than 5 hours; second 30 min after more than 10 hours	One extra hour of pay per day when rest breaks aren't provided
Oregon	10 min paid per 4 hours or major part	30 min unpaid for a 6 hour shift or longer	A 6 hour shift gets 1 rest break and 1 meal
Washington	10 min paid per 4 hours; no more than 3 hours without one	30 min, starting 2 to 5 hours into the shift	Meal is paid if the employee must stay on premises
Colorado	10 min paid per 4 hours or major fraction	30 min uninterrupted when the shift exceeds 5 hours	On duty meals must be paid in full
Nevada	10 min paid per 4 hours or major fraction; none under 3.5 hours	30 min for 8 continuous hours	Doesn't apply where only one person works at the site
Minnesota	15 min (or restroom time) per 4 consecutive hours; under 20 min can't be deducted	30 min for 6+ consecutive hours, need not be paid	Missed breaks owe wages plus an equal amount

Sources: California rest breaks from the Labor Commissioner's rest period FAQ and meals from Labor Code 512; Oregon from BOLI's meals and breaks page; Washington from WAC 296-126-092; Colorado from COMPS Order Rule 5; Nevada from NRS 608.019; Minnesota from Minn. Stat. 177.253, 177.254 and Minn. R. 5200.0120.

CA break laws

California has the strictest rules and the steepest penalty. Rest breaks are 10 consecutive minutes per 4 hours or major fraction, paid, and the employee must be relieved of all duties (no staying in radio contact). The Labor Commissioner treats anything more than two hours as a "major fraction" of four, so a 3.5 to 6 hour day gets one rest break, more than 6 up to 10 hours gets two, and more than 10 up to 14 gets three. Meal periods are 30 minutes once a workday runs past 5 hours, with a second one past 10 hours. Miss a rest break and the employee is owed one extra hour of pay at the regular rate for that day. Our full guide to California lunch break laws covers waivers, timing and premium pay.

Oregon break laws for 6 hours and other shift lengths

Oregon is the state where shift length matters most. Under Oregon lunch break laws, nobody gets a meal period on a shift under 6 hours. At exactly 6 hours, the employee gets one 10 minute paid rest break and one 30 minute unpaid meal. Add one minute and it's two rest breaks plus the meal. For a 6 to 7 hour shift, the meal has to fall after the second hour and before the fifth hour starts. A 14 hour shift gets a second meal.

WA state break laws

Washington requires a paid 10 minute rest break for each 4 hours, with no more than 3 hours of work without one. WA state lunch break laws require a 30 minute meal starting between the second and fifth hour. The trap for employers used to federal rules: if you require staff to stay on the premises during lunch, that lunch is paid.

Colorado meal and rest break laws

Colorado break laws come from the COMPS Order: 1 paid 10 minute break for a shift over 2 and up to 6 hours, 2 for over 6 up to 10, 3 for over 10 up to 14. Required rest periods count as time worked for minimum wage and overtime, and a meal the employee has to eat on the job is paid.

Nevada, Minnesota and Kentucky break laws

Nevada break laws use the same 10-per-4 paid formula, skip workers under 3.5 hours a day, and exempt a site where only one person works. Minnesota break laws give the most rest time (15 minutes or restroom time every 4 consecutive hours), and Minnesota's rule 5200.0120 bars deducting rest periods under 20 minutes. Kentucky break laws (KRS 337.365) require a 10 minute rest period in each 4 hours, on top of lunch, with no cut in pay.

What about NY break laws, NJ break laws or Massachusetts break laws? New York and Massachusetts require a 30 minute meal period on shifts over 6 hours, and Illinois requires a 20 minute meal on shifts of 7.5 hours or more, but none of the three requires a paid rest break. New Jersey has no break requirement for adults. Where a state says nothing about short breaks, the federal rule decides whether one is paid. New York's meal rules also depend on the time of day the shift covers, so check the state's labor department before you set a policy there. For every state in one place, see our meal and rest break laws by state reference.

How long is a lunch break supposed to be?

There's no federal minimum. A 30 minute lunch break is the standard because it reliably counts as a bona fide meal period under 785.19, and it's the minimum in every state listed above. Many employers give 60 minutes.

• 10 or 15 minute break: paid everywhere.
• 20 minute break: paid under federal rules (785.18 covers "about 20 minutes").
• 30 or 60 minute lunch: unpaid if fully off duty and uninterrupted, paid if not.

How do breaks affect overtime?

Paid breaks are hours worked, so they count toward the 40 weekly hours that trigger FLSA overtime (and daily overtime in California and Colorado). Unpaid breaks don't.

Say an employee works five 8.5 hour days, clock in to clock out, with a 30 minute unpaid lunch and two 10 minute paid breaks each day. Worked time is 8 hours a day, 40 for the week, no overtime. Now say the lunches kept getting interrupted, so each one should have been paid. Worked time becomes 42.5 hours, and 2.5 of them are overtime at time and a half. The punches were identical; only the classification changed. Our overtime calculator shows the difference in dollars, and the overtime laws page covers the state rules.

How to track paid vs unpaid breaks on timesheets

Break time tracking is where policy meets proof. If a wage claim comes in, your timesheet breaks are the evidence. A few practical steps:

1. Have staff punch breaks and lunches. Don't auto-deduct a lunch that may not have happened. A punch out and punch in gives you real times.
2. Write the rule down. State how long each break is, whether it's paid, and what happens when it runs over. This is what makes an overrun unpaid under Fact Sheet #22.
3. Set the rule by shift length. A 4 hour shift and a 10 hour shift shouldn't get the same breaks, and in Oregon or Colorado the law says exactly how many each gets.
4. Show paid and unpaid minutes separately. A single "break: 42 min" line hides whether 20 of those minutes should have been paid.
5. Review flags before payroll. Look for short lunches, long breaks and days where a required break never happened.

To check one card by hand, the time card calculator handles a single week.

How Kloqk shows paid and unpaid break minutes

We built break tracking around the rules above. In Settings > Payroll > Breaks & lunch, rest break and lunch rules are written as sentences, for example "Shifts of 6 hours or more get 2 × 10 min, paid." You start from your state's law (there are presets for every state) or a common policy, then change anything you like. A table shows what a 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 hour shift gets under your rules, and if your rules give less than your state's law, the page says where.

On pay, each rest break is paid up to its rule's minutes, and minutes past that are unpaid. With no rule for the shift, a rest break up to 20 minutes is paid, matching the federal rule. A lunch under 30 minutes is paid; 30 minutes or more follows your rule, which is usually unpaid.

The timesheet shows each day's break and lunch time split into paid and unpaid, and marks problems in plain words:

• "Break ran 14 min; 10 min is paid, 4 min unpaid"
• "2 breaks on a 6h day; 1 allowed until 8h"
• "Lunch taken on a 5h day"

A break or lunch that was due and not taken also marks the day, but pay isn't changed, so you decide what happened. Unpaid break and lunch minutes come off worked time before overtime is counted, which keeps overtime tracking honest. The detailed report, summary report and detailed CSV all show paid and unpaid break and lunch time, and overnight shifts count on the day they start, breaks included.

Staff punch breaks at the same time clock kiosk they use to clock in: any tablet or phone, a 4-digit PIN, and an optional photo. The core employee time tracking is free for unlimited employees at one location. Pro is $29 per location per month and Premium is $59 per location per month if you want more. You can set up your break rules in a few minutes.

What should an employee break policy say?

Keep it short and specific. State how long each rest break is and that it's paid, how long the meal period is and that it must be duty-free, that staff clock out and in for meals, and the overrun line: time past the stated limit is unpaid, against company rules, and will lead to discipline. Add one more line telling staff to report an interrupted lunch so the whole meal gets paid. Adjust the lengths for your state, put it in front of every employee, and let the timesheet show whether real breaks match it.