Overview

20 states, Guam, and Puerto Rico have meal period requirements for employees, according to the DOL. Among those, nine states require rest breaks for employees who work more than a few hours. 

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Federal law does not require meal or rest 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.

•The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not require businesses to offer lunch or rest breaks to employees.

•The Department of Labor (DOL) and the FLSA outline requirements for paid and unpaid breaks. And while federal law doesn’t require breaks, 20 states maintain their own break laws. Nine of those mandate lunch and rest breaks.