Wage and hour law
What is meal break?
Also called: lunch break, meal period
A meal break is an uninterrupted period, usually 30 minutes or more, that is unpaid when the employee is fully relieved of duty. Federal law does not require one, but many states do.
Under federal rules a bona fide meal period is not work time, which is what makes it unpaid. The catch is 'fully relieved'. Answering the phone, watching the counter, or eating at a desk while covering means the time is work and has to be paid.
State law is where the actual obligation usually lives. California requires a 30-minute meal before the end of the fifth hour and a second meal past 10 hours, with a premium hour of pay owed when it's missed. Washington and roughly twenty other states have their own versions.
Auto-deducting a lunch that the employee never took is a reliable way to create a wage claim. If you auto-deduct, give people a documented way to cancel the deduction on days they worked through.
Source: 29 CFR 785.19 (meal periods)
Handle this automatically
Kloqk is a free employee time clock for small business. It records the punches, applies your rules, and does this arithmetic for you.
Related terms
Rest break
A rest break is a short break, typically 5 to 20 minutes, that federal law treats as paid work time when it is offered.
Time theft
Time theft is being paid for time not worked, through padded timesheets, early punches, long unrecorded breaks, or buddy punching.
Timesheet
A timesheet is the record of hours an employee worked in a pay period, used to calculate pay and to prove compliance if you are ever audited.
General information for US employers, not legal advice. Wage and hour rules change and vary by state, so confirm specifics with your state labor agency or counsel.