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.
Meal and Rest Break - States | |
Meals Breaks - States |
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•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.
Regulations on rest and meal periods make a distinction between rest periods (usually lasting 5 to 20 minutes) and compensable waiting time or on-call time, all of which are paid work time and meal periods (typically lasting at least 30 minutes that are not compensable work time. Reference the following links
29 CFR 785.18 - Rest Periods.
29 CFR 785.19 - Meal Periods.