Meal Breaks

Most non-exempt California employees who work more than 5 hours in a workday must be given a meal break of at least 30-minutes. However, if the employee will work no more than 6 hours in the day, they may waive their meal.

In addition, employees who will work more than 10 hours in a day must receive a second 30-minute meal break. Which can be waived if they did not waive the first meal break and won’t work more than 12 hours in the day.

Example: Rosa works as a grocery store checkout clerk. Her normal shifts are nine hours long. Therefore, the store is required to provide her with one half-hour meal break per shift.

One week the store is short-staffed, and Rosa works eleven-hour shifts instead. On these shifts, the store must provide her with at least two half-hour meal breaks--unless she agrees to waive one of them.

There are exceptions to the meal break requirements for certain categories of employees whose collective bargaining agreements provide for meal breaks on a different schedule--including unionized employees who work in construction occupations, as commercial drivers, as security officers, for electrical or gas companies, or in the motion picture industry.

Rest breaks

California wage and hour laws also require employers to provide rest breaks to non-exempt employees.

Non-exempt employees are entitled to 10 minutes of rest period for each 4 hours that they work. However, employees are not entitled to rest breaks for work shifts that are less than 3 ½ hours long.

During these rest periods, the employer may not require the employee to perform any duties or to remain “on call.”