Overview of California’s Laws on Meal Periods/Breaks
Are you working in California and your employer gives you a meal and rest breaks? It is a surprise to many employees to realize that the federal laws do not give employees the right to have short breaks and meal breaks during the normal working hours. There are some employers who just allow their employees to have such breaks just because they are aware that fatigued employees are not productive. Therefore, the federal laws don’t allow the employers to give rest breaks to the employees. On the other hand, the state law requires the employer to give a number of paid rests and meal breaks to their employees.
The Federal Laws: Paid versus Unpaid Breaks
The federal laws require the employer to pay the employee for the hours worked including the designated breaks. If an employee has to work while on break or rest, he/she must be paid. For instance, when a receptionist has to wait for some deliveries at lunch time, he/she must be paid since he/she is working. Another good example is when a repairman has to take a meal while working. He is taking a meal while doing some repairs and this law demands that he should be paid for such a break.
Besides, the federal law demands that the employees must be paid for those short breaks lasting between five to twenty minutes. They are considered working hours and therefore, the employees must be paid.
On the other hand, the employer is not required to pay for breaks that are bonafide. These are the breaks whereby the employee is relieved of all the duties and allowed to go and rest for more about thirty minutes or more. At that time, the employee is not working and in such case, he/she should not be paid.
These rules only apply if the employer allows breaks. This is because the federal law does not force them to do so.
California Laws Allow Meal and Rest Breaks
California is a state that requires that the employees be allowed breaks and be paid for some of the time they spend on breaks. The employees are allowed meal breaks and paid rest breaks.
Meal Breaks
The California requires that the employees are given a thirty-minute meal break after working for five hours. The employer is not required to pay for this time. If the total working hours are less than six, the employee may decide to waive the meal break. Therefore, meal breaks are not paid unless the employee is required to do some work while taking meals provided by the employer. That is the California law meal periods.
Rest Breaks
The employers are required to provide a ten minutes paid break after every four working hours. They should be provided at the middle of working hours. However, employees who work for less than three and a half hours are not entitled to such breaks.
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