Are you accustomed to being given meal and rest breaks at your place of employment? You may be shocked to learn that federal law does not give employees the right to time off to eat lunch or any other meals or the right to take short breaks during the workday. However, state law is different as several states require employers to provide meal breaks or rest breaks. The state of California is one of the handfuls of States that requires both the provision of meal and rest breaks as well as the payment of breaks by employers.Under the state law of California, employers are required to provide a 30-minute meal break once the employee has worked for 5 hours. For such meal breaks an employer is not required to pay for this time; therefore, these fall under unpaid lunch break laws. When an employee's workday is completed in 6 hours or less the employee may consent to ‘give up' their right to a meal break. If an employee works a 10 hour day, he or she is entitled to a second 30-minute unpaid meal break. Where the entire workday does not exceed 12 hours, then the employee may choose to give up the second meal break. That being said, it must be noted that the second break may only be waived if the employee took the first break. Therefore, an employee may not waive both breaks in one day. Depending on the nature of the job, if an employee is unable to take a break from all their duties, the employer is required to provide an on-duty meal period. Such meal periods must be paid, and the employee must agree to an on-duty break in writing.
One article notes the following, "California also requires employers to provide rest breaks. Employers must allow employees to take a paid 10-minute rest break for every 4 hours (or major fraction) worked. If practical, these breaks must be provided in the middle of the work period. Breaks are not required for employees whose total daily work time is less than 3 and a half hours."
It is important to note that there are exempt and non-exempt employees who are entitled to meal breaks under the California labor law. Non-exempt employees would include individuals employed in professional, technical, clerical, mechanical and similar occupations whether they are paid on a time, piece rate, commission or another basis. One article notes, "There are several workers who may not fall within the standard lunch break requirements of non-exempt employees. This may include exempt employees, independent contractors, and unionized employees in certain industries."
Employees who are exempt from the standard lunch break laws include individuals employed in administrative, managerial, executive, or professional capacities. For an employee to be considered as exempt they must meet the requirements of; spending more than one half of their work time performing intellectual, managerial or creative work, they must customarily and regularly exercise discretion and independent judgment in performing their duties and earn a monthly salary that is equivalent to at least twice the California minimum wage for full-time employment.
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