Many employers choose to give their employees meal breaks, as it is good for employee morale, encourages social relationships between employees, prevents burnout, and can improve productivity. However, it may come as a surprise to you and your stomach that the federal law governing labor standards, the Fair Labor Standards Act, does not require employers to give their employees any meal breaks. (Whether an employee is paid for his or her meal breaks that he or she is allowed to take may be a matter of federal law; see question 4 for further information.)

Only these states have provisions requiring employers to give their employees meal breaks. Employers may also be bound by collective bargaining agreements (in unionized workplaces) or other state labor regulations which require breaks.

If you work in one of the states where there is no law and you are not bound by any other agreement, then your employer is only voluntarily giving you a meal break if you have one. Your employer is free to revoke that policy at any time, or may make any appropriate modifications or limitations it chooses.

Many employers also choose to give their employees rest breaks, even if the law does not require them to do so. However, you may not know that the federal law governing labor standards, the Fair Labor Standards Act, does not require employers to give their employees any breaks from work for any reason. (Whether an employee is paid for the breaks that he or she is allowed to take may be determined by federal law; see question 5 for further information).

These states have provisions requiring that employers give their employees rest breaks. Employers may also be bound to provide breaks by collective bargaining agreements (in unionized workplaces) or other state labor regulations.

If you work in one of the states where there is no law, then your employer is only voluntarily giving you rest breaks if you have them. Your employer is free to revoke that policy at any time, or may make any appropriate modifications or limitations it chooses.

Employees who work for certain businesses or organizations (or “enterprises”) are covered by the FLSA. These enterprises, which must have at least two employees, are:

• those that have an annual dollar volume of sales or business done of at least $500,000

• hospitals, businesses providing medical or nursing care for residents, schools and preschools, and government agencies

Even when there is no enterprise coverage, employees are protected by the FLSA if their work regularly involves them in commerce between States (“interstate commerce”). The FLSA covers individual workers who are “engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce.”

See the Department of Labor website for more information.

Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks. However, when employers do offer short breaks (usually lasting about 5 to 20 minutes), federal law considers the breaks as compensable work hours that would be included in the sum of hours worked during the workweek and considered in determining if overtime was worked. Unauthorized extensions of authorized work breaks need not be counted as hours worked when the employer has expressly and unambiguously communicated to the employee that the authorized break may only last for a specific length of time, that any extension of the break is contrary to the employer’s rules, and any extension of the break will be punished.

Meal periods (typically lasting at least 30 minutes), serve a different purpose than coffee or snack breaks and, thus, are not work time and are not compensable.

For employees not covered by the FLSA, meal and break provisions may be covered under state law, if the employee lives in one of the few states with laws requiring meal and break periods.

Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks. However, when employers do offer short breaks (usually lasting about 5 to 20 minutes), federal law considers the breaks as compensable work hours that would be included in the sum of hours worked during the workweek and considered in determining if overtime was worked. Unauthorized extensions of authorized work breaks need not be counted as hours worked when the employer has expressly and unambiguously communicated to the employee that the authorized break may only last for a specific length of time, that any extension of the break is contrary to the employer’s rules, and any extension of the break will be punished.

Meal periods (typically lasting at least 30 minutes), serve a different purpose than coffee or snack breaks and, thus, are not work time and are not compensable.

For employees not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, meal and break provisions may be covered under state law, if the employee lives in one of the few states with laws requiring meal and break periods.

It depends. Most states do not require that your employer give you a full hour for meal time (the most common standard is 30 minutes), so your employer may not be required to give you a full hour off. If your employer chooses to give you a full hour off each day, your employer is not obligated to pay you for that time. However, if you are not completely relieved from duty for at least part of that time, then you should be paid for your working time.

For example, if your state requires your employer to give you a 30-minute unpaid break, and you typically take thirty minutes to eat and work through the other half of your lunch hour, then you should be paid for an additional thirty minutes each day. In this situation, the employer may not have violated the state law relating to providing lunch breaks, but may be violating federal and/or state law for not paying you for time worked. However, you should clarify with a supervisor or HR representative whether you should take the entire hour off and not do any work, or whether the company intends to start paying you and any other employees in a similar situation for the time worked.

It depends. When your employer’s workplace policies interfere with your religious practices, you can ask for what is called a “reasonable accommodation:” a change in a workplace rule or policy which would allow you to engage in a religious practice without conflicting with your work obligations.

Your employer is required to provide you with such an accommodation unless it would impose an “undue hardship” on the employer’s business, defined as an accommodation that is too costly or difficult to provide. It is important for you to work closely with your employer to find an appropriate accommodation.

Whether your employer can accommodate your religious practices, such as prayer or Bible study, will depend upon the nature of the work and the workplace. Usually, your employer can allow you to use lunch or other break times for religious prayer. While the employer may argue that giving breaks to only one employee would be an undue hardship, a number of factors must be balanced to determine whether it will be too costly or difficult to provide this accommodation in your workplace.

If you require additional time for prayer or must go to another location away from your immediate work area, you can still be accommodated if the nature of your work makes flexible scheduling workable, but your employer can require you to make up the time.

It depends. If you are able to perform all of the essential functions of a job, except for those your disability prevents you from performing, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and many state disability laws require that your employer provide you with a “reasonable accommodation,” which is an adjustment or modification provided by an employer to allow you to enjoy equal employment opportunities as individuals without disabilities.

Accommodations vary depending upon the needs of the individual applicant or employee. Not all people with disabilities (or even all people with the same disability) will require the same accommodation. Additional or more frequent breaks are a form of reasonable accommodation. For example, an employee with diabetes may need regularly scheduled breaks during the workday to eat properly and monitor blood sugar and insulin levels, while an employee with cancer and undergoing radiation or chemotherapy treatments may need more frequent rest breaks. It is important for you to work closely with your employer to find an appropriate accommodation for your disability.

An employer is not required to make an accommodation for a known disability of a qualified applicant or employee if it would impose an “undue hardship” on the employer’s business. Undue hardship is defined as an accommodation requiring “significant difficulty or expense.” An employer is not required to lower quality or production standards to make an accommodation or excuse violations of conduct rules necessary for the operation of an employer’s business. While the employer may argue that giving breaks to only one employee would be an undue hardship, a number of factors must be balanced to determine whether it will be too costly or difficult to provide this accommodation in your workplace.

If you require additional time for breaks or must go to another location away from your immediate work area, you can still be accommodated if the nature of your work makes flexible scheduling workable, but your employer can require you to make up the time.

If you are not considered disabled under the ADA, your employer may not have a legal obligation to give you breaks. However, you should still talk with your managers and/or the company’s HR department to see whether the company is willing to accommodate your needs voluntarily.

Unless you live in a state in which employers are required to provide breaks, or otherwise governed by a provision requiring breaks (such as union or government employees), you may not have a legal remedy for this problem.

As mentioned above, most employers who give breaks to their employees do so voluntarily, and not because the law requires them to do so. This means they are allowed to place limitations on the breaks to maintain production or productivity standards, or for any other reason the employer considers important.

Employees who have difficulty with their employer’s break policy may wish to contact their company’s HR department and/or speak with an appropriate supervisor, to see whether the employer will consider implementing a more workable break policy that still allows employees to take breaks without abusing the system.

Even the states that do not have meal and break provisions for adult workers commonly have provisions requiring that workers under age 18 receive more frequent or longer breaks than adult employees receive. Typically these laws are stricter and provide for more frequent and longer breaks than adults receive.

More information about youth and child labor may be found at the Department of Labor website.

The vast majority of states do not regulate breaks at all, and even those which have laws do not prevent an employer from offering more breaks than the law requires.

Employees who have difficulty with their employer’s break policies do not have a legal remedy. They may wish to contact their company’s HR department and/or speak with an appropriate supervisor, however.

There is not a federal law that specifically applies to the number and duration of bathroom breaks. However, there are Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations which require employers to provide adequate bathroom facilities, and prevent employers from imposing “unreasonable restrictions” on bathroom use. 

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) is enforced by the Wage-Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor. Wage-Hour’s enforcement of FLSA is carried out by investigators stationed across the U.S., who conduct investigations and gather data on wages, hours, and other employment conditions or practices, in order to determine whether an employer has complied with the law. Where violations are found, they also may recommend changes in employment practices to bring an employer into compliance.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), there are generally no specific fines for employers violating meal break requirements because federal law does not mandate meal breaks, meaning employers are not required to provide them; however, if an employer does provide meal breaks and violates the rules around them (like requiring employees to work during their break), they could face penalties for wage violations, which can include fines per violation depending on the severity and intent of the violation, potentially reaching up to $1,000 for repeated or willful offenses.

There are several different methods under the FLSA for an employee to recover unpaid wages (which includes break time for which the employee should have been paid); each method has different remedies.

• Wage-Hour may supervise payment of back wages.
• The Secretary of Labor may bring suit for back wages and an additional penalty, called “liquidated damages,” which can be equal to the back pay award (essentially doubling the damages) if an employer willfully violated the statute.
• An employee may file a private lawsuit for back pay and an equal amount as liquidated damages, plus attorney’s fees and court costs. An employee may not bring a lawsuit if he or she has been paid back wages under the supervision of Wage-Hour or if the Secretary of Labor has already filed suit to recover the wages.
• The Secretary of Labor may obtain an injunction to restrain any person from violating FLSA, including the unlawful withholding of proper minimum wage and overtime pay.

Your state law may have different methods for recovery of unpaid wages and/or violations of the state’s meal or break provisions, and different remedies to be awarded to those who succeed in proving a violation. For further information, please contact the agency in your state which handles wage and hour/labor standards violations, listed on our site’s state government agencies page.