If you’re a non-exempt employee, you’re entitled to an uninterrupted 30-minute unpaid duty-free meal break.  In other words, you should receive a 30-minute meal break for every 5 hours of work.  As noted in the previous blog post on rest breaks, you cannot combine your meal and rest break to create a single longer break.  If your workday will be completed in six hours or less, an employer may require you to sign a waiver to forgo your right to a meal break.

Below is a chart to provide context of when you’re entitled to a meal break:

Work Hours	Meal Breaks
0 – 5	0
5 – 10	1
10 – 15	2

For example, you’re entitled to a total of 2 meal breaks if you work more than 10 hours in a day.

In Augustus v. ABM Security Services, Inc., the Supreme Court of California held that during meal breaks, employers must relieve employees of all duty and relinquish any control over employees and how they spend their time.  For example, you must be free to leave the premise and cannot be forced to remain “on-call” during your meal breaks.

If your meal break is not provided or interrupted, then you are owed one hour of pay that is due by the following pay period.

For further questions or if you feel you are being denied meal breaks, please contact our office for a free consultation.