Under California law, if you are a non-exempt worker, meaning you are paid by the hour, you are entitled to meal and rest breaks. Specifically, you are entitled to a 30 minute meal break if you work more than 5 hours in a workday, and one 10 minutes break for every 4 hours you work. The 10 minutes breaks are paid time, but the 30 minute meal break is unpaid as long as you are completely free of all employment related duties during the break, otherwise it should be paid time. In other words if you work a job from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. you are entitled to a 10 minute break in the morning, a 30 minute unpaid meal break and a 10 minute break in the afternoon.
If your employer doesn’t comply with break requirements, they may be required to pay you one extra hour of regular pay for each day on which a meal period or rest break violation occurred. Recently a California Appeal Court held that an employer is liable for one hour of pay for missed breaks and an additional hour of pay for missed meals, that is two additional hours of paid time for every day an employer denies an employee rest breaks and a meal period in the same day. See United Parcel Service v. Superior Court (published 6/2/2011)
Important Rest Break Details
(1) A rest break is at least 10 consecutive minutes. Rest breaks are paid time.
(2) If you work at least 3.5 hours in a day, you are entitled to a rest break; you are entitled to one rest for each 4 hours worked.
(3) Rest breaks must to the extent possible be in the middle of each work period.
(4) Your boss may require you to remain on work premises during your rest break; but you cannot be required to work during any required rest break.
(5) *** You are free to skip your rest break provided your boss isn’t encouraging or forcing you to.
Important Meal Period Details
(1) If you work over five hours in a day, you are entitled to an unpaid meal period of at least 30 minutes; however you can agree with your employer to waive this meal period provided you do not work more than six hours in the workday.
(2) An employee can, if they wish, agree with their employer to an "on-duty" meal break which counts as time worked and is paid. If you do agree to an on-duty meal period, it should be written down and signed by you and an employer representative.
(3) Your employer has an affirmative obligation to ensure you are free to take your meal break, including leaving the premises if you want to leave.
(4) Your boss has an affirmative obligation to ensure you are actually relieved of all duty and are not performing any work during meal breaks.
Please note that there are some exceptions to the above rules for certain industries, including drivers, healthcare, group home, motion picture, manufacturing, and baking industries.
For questions about your meals and rest breaks call Gienapp Law, APC at (619) 234-3054 for a free consultation.
Keep on taking those breaks!
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