California Meal Break Rules Made Simple

It is no surprise to many employers that California is considered to have some of the strongest employee-friendly laws in the United States. While the intention is to provide safe and healthy working conditions for employees, some regulations can seem unwieldy and complex to administer. Meal break laws for non-exempt employees are among those that may seem frustrating at first, but we’re here to break them down for you!

Meal Breaks Defined

Almost half of U.S. states have some form of meal break requirement, so you are not alone. But what are these requirements, exactly? For starters, it only applies to non-exempt employees (those not exempt from overtime, typically hourly employees):

A 30-minute, uninterrupted meal break is required for shifts longer than 5 hours. The meal break must be taken before the end of the fifth hour.
A second 30-minute, uninterrupted meal break is required for shifts longer than 10 hours. Again, the meal break must be taken before the end of the tenth hour.

Wait, what?

Think of it this way: The beginning of the workday is zero hours. If work starts at 8:00 am, then the end of the fifth hour would be 1:00 pm, therefore, they would need to take their meal break by 12:59 pm.

Meal Break Example
TIME WORKED	HOUR
8:00 am to 9:00 am	1st hour
9:00 am to 10:00 am	2nd hour
10:00 am to 11:00 am	3rd hour
11:00 am to 12:00 pm	4th hour
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm	5th hour
The meal break must be before the END of the 5th hour (12:59 pm)

As you may imagine, waiting until the end of the fifth hour could result in unintentional meal break violations if the employee gets caught with a customer or derailed by an urgent matter. This is why it’s a good idea to schedule meal breaks around the 4th hour whenever possible, to leave ample buffer time.

Rest Breaks Defined

Unlike meal breaks, rest breaks are paid. If an employee works 3.5 hours or more in a day, they are entitled to a 10-minute rest break for each four-hour work period or major fraction thereof.

Rest Break Example
HOURS WORKED	# OF REST BREAKS
0 to 3.5 hours	0
3.5 to 6 hours	1
6 to 10 hours	2
10 to 14 hours	3

The breaks should be taken in the middle of each work period. For example, our employee starts work at 8:00 am. Let’s say that her meal break is at 12:00 pm (4 hours from start). Her first rest break would be at the halfway point of 2 hours in the morning (10:00 am) and 2 hours after lunch in the afternoon (2:30 pm).

The difficulty in managing rest breaks is that employers rely heavily on their people to take them. With no clocking in or out, there are definitely oversight and control challenges. This is why the employer’s obligation is generally limited to providing the opportunity for breaks. We will get more into this later.

Red Hot Danger Zone

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and this is not untrue of meal and rest break violations. Often, employees just want to power through and get some work done (good intention), but what they may not realize is that this places liability for wage and hour violations on you, the employer (road to hell).

What are the consequences of these good intentions?

Not only does the employer pay for the meal time, but also incurs a one-hour penalty payment at the employee’s regular rate of pay.
Rest breaks are already paid for, but the employer still pays a penalty of one hour at the employee’s regular rate of pay if any of the rest breaks are missed.
If a rest break and a meal break are missed, that results in a two-hour penalty payment.
Failure to pay for meal breaks or any of the break penalties could result in a wage and hour violation.
Wage and hour violations are fair game for class actions and expose employers to wider audits and potential violations, fines, and penalties.

But now for some good news…

Meal Break Waivers

Some industries and small businesses may have a legitimate need for an employee to work through lunch. Think healthcare, retail, hospitality workers, security services, and commercial drivers. Fortunately, if both the employee and the employer agree to waive the meal break, the penalties would also be waived.

For the sake of convenience, many employers in these industries have created “blanket” waivers for their employees to sign, which would relieve them of the burden of getting waivers signed daily. However, until recently, there was no determination from the courts as to the legality of this approach.

The good news here is that in a recent ruling by a state appellate court, it was affirmed that employees may in fact, waive their right to a meal break prospectively (Bradsbery v. Vicar Operating), meaning that a single waiver could apply on a going-forward and as-needed basis. The court did rule, however, that in order to help ensure that a prospective waiver holds up in court:

There should be no coercion involved in signing the waivers
Employees should knowingly sign the waivers with a full understanding of what they mean
Employees must be able to freely revoke the waivers at any time

While there is no requirement that waivers be in writing, it is in the employer’s best interest to document the understanding and make sure employees know they have the right to revoke them.

And as before, employees cannot waive both first and second meal periods on the same day.

Best Practices

Even with waivers in place, the best practice is to give your people breaks as much as possible. Studies have found that employees who are able to take their breaks have less stress and higher productivity, and employers who commit to providing breaks have lower absenteeism and higher engagement and retention.

In addition to addressing employee stress, employers can implement low-maintenance practices to help them better manage breaks.

Schedule Breaks. The best way for employers to manage breaks is to formally schedule them. Communicating schedule expectations to employees not only helps smooth out continuity of operations during lunch periods but also shows that the company is serious about ensuring they take their breaks.

Establish Practices around Breaks. Simple rules to support employees in compartmentalizing break times also help to build a culture that respects work/life balance. Practices such as employees not eating at their desks and removing themselves entirely from their desks during breaks can reduce confusion about whether they are on a break. Additionally, these practices deter others from creating an interruption during breaks, which negates the break entirely.

Listen to your People. If your people are habitually working through their lunches, it behooves you to find out why. Yes, I said behoove. Are they struggling with the volume of work, or do they need more training? Are priorities clear and deadlines reasonable? Especially in fast-growing companies, the pace and volume of work increase before resources are provided, and people don’t always speak up when they need help.

Set the Tone. Managers also need to practice discipline by not seeking people out during their rest or meal breaks. The nature of the break is that it must be uninterrupted; disrupting that means they must start over, or the employer risks a violation.

Use Meal Waivers Wisely. Just because one can doesn’t always mean one should. Of course, there will be critical needs from time to time when you’ll be glad you have a meal waiver in place, but regularly requiring people to work through their breaks can create burnout, stress, and loss of productivity in the long run. You can get more out of your teams by demonstrating that you are committed to their well-being and creating a work culture they can feel good about.

Have more questions about navigating meal and rest breaks? Our HR pros would love to help! Contact us to speak to a consultant.

California Meal Break Rules Made Simple