Meal and Rest Break Laws by State (Updated 2026)

Federal Break Laws

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) doesn't require you to give adult employees meal or rest breaks. In other words, unless your state says otherwise, breaks are up to you.

If you do offer breaks, federal law decides which ones you have to pay for:

• Short breaks (about 5 to 20 minutes): You must pay for them and count them as hours worked, including when you figure overtime.
• Meal breaks (usually 30 minutes or more): These can be unpaid, but only if the employee is completely relieved of duty. An employee who eats at their desk while answering the phone is still working.
• Breaks that run longer than allowed: You don't have to pay for the extra time if you've clearly told employees how long the break lasts, that going over is against your rules, and that going over will be disciplined.

An unpaid meal break doesn't have to be spent off the premises. It only has to be free of all duties.

Here's how those rules play out on a normal day:

If you'd like to check a week of punches, the free time card calculator totals hours for you.

Special Rule: Lactation Breaks for Nursing Employees

Under the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, which became law on December 29, 2022, most employers must give nursing employees:

• Reasonable break time to pump breast milk each time they need to, for up to one year after the child's birth.
• A private place to pump that isn't a bathroom and is shielded from view and free from intrusion by coworkers and the public.

Pump breaks can be unpaid when the employee is completely relieved from duty. If the employee pumps during a paid break you already offer, pay it like any other break. If they keep working while pumping, that time is paid. The DOL's Fact Sheet #73 has the details.

Employers with fewer than 50 employees can be exempt, but only if complying would cause undue hardship, meaning significant difficulty or expense for a business of that size. You count all employees at every location.

Some states go further. New York requires 30 minutes of paid break time each time an employee needs to pump, for up to three years after the child's birth. Oregon's protections last until the child is 18 months old.

Bottom Line

Federal law sets the floor. It doesn't require breaks, but it decides which breaks are paid, and it does require pump breaks for nursing employees.

State Break Laws

State break laws vary a lot. Some states require both meal and rest breaks, and others require only one. Many, like Texas, Florida and Georgia, don't require breaks for adults at all. In those states, only the federal pay rules apply.

Here's how state break laws usually work:

• Meal breaks: Usually 20 to 30 minutes, required once a shift passes a set length, most often somewhere between 5 and 8 hours. They can usually be unpaid if the employee is fully off duty.
• Rest breaks: Usually a paid 10-minute break for every 4 hours worked. Only a handful of states require them.
• Minors: Many states that don't require breaks for adults still require a meal break for workers under 18, often after 4 or 5 hours of work.

States That Require Rest Breaks for Adults

Rest break laws are less common than meal break laws. These are the states listed in the U.S. Department of Labor's rest period table, with current rules from each state:

Vermont is marked "Limited" because its law sets no fixed paid break. Short breaks you do give there still follow the federal rule and are paid.

States With the Most Detailed Break Rules

• California: A 30-minute meal break when the workday is more than 5 hours, a second one when it's more than 10 hours, and a paid 10-minute rest break for every 4 hours. A missed break triggers premium pay (see the example below).
• Oregon: The number of breaks grows with the shift. A 6-hour shift gets 1 meal break and 1 rest break, and a shift of 6 hours and 1 minute to 10 hours gets 1 meal break and 2 rest breaks. Hospitals pay a $200 penalty for each missed meal or rest break found through a complaint.
• Washington: A 30-minute meal break for shifts over 5 hours, given between the 2nd and 5th hour, plus a paid 10-minute rest break for every 4 hours. Farmworkers and many health care workers have their own rules.
• Colorado: A 30-minute meal break once a shift goes past 5 straight hours and a paid 10-minute rest break for every 4 hours. If you don't allow a rest break, you owe the employee an extra 10 minutes of pay.

Other State Rules Worth Knowing

• Illinois requires a meal break of at least 20 minutes for every 7.5-hour shift, starting no later than 5 hours into the shift, plus another 20-minute meal break for each additional 4.5 continuous hours. Someone working a 12-hour shift gets two.
• Vermont has a broad "reasonable opportunity" rule for meals and restroom use. It sets no fixed timing, but it's still enforceable.
• New York's meal rules depend on the shift and the type of workplace. Most shifts over 6 hours that run from before 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. get an unpaid 30-minute break between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Bottom Line

You can't rely on federal law alone. Check the break rules in every state where you have employees, or you risk owed wages and penalties.

California Meal and Rest Break Laws

California employers must give a 30-minute meal break, free of all duties, no later than the end of the fifth hour of work, and a second one when the shift runs past 10 hours. Employees also get a paid 10-minute rest break for every 4 hours worked or major fraction. Missed breaks cost one extra hour of pay.

Rest break counts follow the Labor Commissioner's rule of one break per 4 hours or "major fraction," which it reads as more than 2 hours. Rest breaks should fall in the middle of each work period when that's practical.

California Meal Break Rules Employers Get Wrong

• The first meal break has to start no later than the end of the fifth hour of work.
• A meal break is unpaid only when the employee is relieved of all duty. If you require the employee to stay on the premises, you pay for the break.
• An on-duty meal break is allowed only when the nature of the work keeps the employee from being relieved, such as a lone worker at a coffee kiosk. It needs a written agreement that says the employee can cancel it in writing at any time, and it's paid time.
• Working through lunch doesn't let an employee leave early or shorten the day in place of the break.
• During rest breaks, employees can't be kept on call, for example by radio.
• Some industries, such as motion pictures, follow different meal break rules.

California Missed Break Premium Pay

For each workday a required meal break isn't provided, you owe one extra hour of pay at the employee's regular rate. For each workday a required rest break isn't provided, you owe another hour. So one workday can cost up to two extra hours: one for meal breaks and one for rest breaks. The premium isn't hours worked, so it doesn't count toward overtime.

If you use automatic lunch deduction, make sure the break actually happened. A deducted lunch that an employee worked through is unpaid time worked, and in California it can also trigger the premium. To check a day's hours and breaks quickly, use the free time card calculator.

Sources: California Labor Commissioner, meal periods FAQ and rest periods FAQ.

California Break Premium Pay Example

In California, if you don't provide a required meal break, you owe the employee one extra hour of pay for that workday. A missed rest break has its own one-hour premium. Since the California Supreme Court's 2021 decision in Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel, that hour is paid at the employee's regular rate of compensation, the same rate used for overtime.

The premium hour doesn't count as hours worked for overtime. For more on figuring the regular rate, see our guides to calculating overtime pay rates and California overtime laws.

Special Break Rules for Minors, Healthcare Workers, and Union Employees

Most break laws are written for adult employees in typical jobs, but there are important exceptions. Minors, health care and emergency workers, and employees covered by union contracts often follow different rules.

Minors (Under 18)

The U.S. Department of Labor lists 33 states with their own meal break rules for minors, including many states with no break law for adults. When a minor is covered by two rules, you follow the stricter one. Common examples:

• 30-minute break after 4 hours: Florida requires it for minors 15 and younger, and since July 1, 2024, for 16 and 17 year olds who work 8 or more hours in a day.
• 30-minute break after 5 hours: New Jersey, Michigan, Maryland and Ohio require it for all workers under 18, Pennsylvania for ages 14 to 17, and Alaska for ages 14 to 17.
• Longer shifts: Wisconsin requires a 30-minute meal for every 6 consecutive hours for workers under 18, and Indiana requires breaks totaling 30 minutes for minors scheduled 6 or more consecutive hours.
• Rules for 14 and 15 year olds only: Alabama requires a 30-minute break after more than 5 straight hours, and Iowa requires one for shifts of 5 hours or more. Alabama doesn't require breaks for workers 16 and older.
• Longer rest breaks: In Oregon, minors get 15-minute rest breaks instead of 10, and 14 and 15 year olds must always get their meal break.
• One industry only: Missouri has no break rule for minors except in the entertainment industry, where workers under 16 can't work more than 5.5 hours without a meal break.

Healthcare and Emergency Personnel

In hospitals, nursing homes and emergency jobs, a standard duty-free break isn't always practical. Many states allow some flexibility, and some add stricter rules:

• On-duty meals: Colorado allows a paid, on-duty meal when a duty-free break isn't practical. Oregon and California allow paid on-duty meals in limited cases, and California requires a written agreement the employee can cancel at any time.
• Safety and staffing exemptions: Connecticut and Delaware allow exemptions when a meal break would put public safety at risk, when only one person can do the job, or for continuous operations. Rhode Island's meal break law doesn't apply to licensed health care facilities.
• Hospital enforcement: Oregon hospitals pay a $200 penalty for each missed meal or rest break found through a complaint. Washington has separate meal and rest break laws for many health care employees, including enforcement penalties. Farmworkers in Washington have their own rest break and meal period rules.

Unionized Workplaces

Employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) may follow a different break schedule than state law requires, if the contract spells it out. Examples:

• California: Union construction workers, commercial drivers, security officers and some utility employees can be exempt from the meal break rules if their CBA meets specific terms, such as premium overtime pay and wages at least 30% above the state minimum wage.
• Delaware and Connecticut: Both let a union contract or other written agreement set different meal break terms.
• Illinois: The meal break law doesn't apply to employees whose meal breaks are set by a CBA.
• Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota and Oregon also let union contracts set different break terms, or leave union-covered employees out of their break laws.

Rules can vary a lot depending on who your employees are and what kind of work they do. Always check for carve-outs that apply to minors, union teams, or health care and emergency jobs.

Compliance Tips for Employers

If you manage schedules or run payroll, break rules are easy to overlook. Missed breaks can lead to back pay, penalties and lawsuits, especially in states with strict rules like California and Oregon.

• Know your state laws: Federal law isn't enough in many states. Check the table below for every state where you have employees.
• Schedule breaks ahead of time: Automating break timing helps you avoid missed or late breaks and reduces human error.
• Track break time accurately: Log paid breaks like any other work time. For unpaid meal breaks, make sure they're truly duty-free and recorded. TimeClick's free time card calculator can help you total hours correctly.
• Automate where you can: Manual tracking invites errors. Employee time tracking software can log breaks, flag missed ones and keep a clean record for each state you operate in.
• Put your break policy in writing: A written policy that says how long breaks last and how to report a missed one helps prevent disputes. It's also what lets you avoid paying for unauthorized break extensions under federal law.
• Keep records: See our guide to employee time tracking compliance for what to record and how long to keep it.