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http://www.ehso.com/cssdol/dolbreaks.php#stateRest Breaks
There are only 7 states (as of February 2006: California, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon and Washington) that have laws requiring that employers give their employees rest breaks. Of course, if you work in a trade labor union, you probably have rules regarding breaks in the collective bargaining agreement Of course, many employers give their employees rest breaks, even if the law does not require them to do so. However, you may not know that the federal law governing labor standards, .
If you work in one of the states where there is no law, then your employer is only voluntarily giving you rest breaks if you have them. Your employer is free to revoke that policy at any time, or may make any appropriate modifications or limitations it chooses.
back to top Payment for Time During Breaks
FLSA generally does not consider breaks to be work time, and employees are not required to be paid for them, as long as the employee is completely relieved from duty for the purposes of eating regular meals and the meal period is 30 minutes or more (unless special conditions exist.). As a note, Employee are not considered completely relieved from duty if they are required to perform any duties, whether active or inactive, while eating. For example, if an employee is required to eat at their desk or required to be at their machine, is working while eating. For more information, see this page on FLSA Regulations on Meal Periods.
Similarly, under FLSA, rest periods of short duration (for example, five to twenty minutes) are considered to help make employees' work more efficient, and as such, are customarily paid. They must be counted as hours worked, and cannot be docked against other time for which workers must be paid, such as waiting time or on-call time. Of course, if you overstay or extend your break beyond the time authorized by your employer, your employer may deduct the excess time from your hours worked, as long as the employer has expressly and clearly communicated to the employee that the authorized break may only last for a specific length of time, and that any extension of the break is contrary to the employer's rules, and that any extension of the break will be punished. For more information, see this page on FLSA Regulations on Rest Periods.
Keep in mind that you may not be covered by the FLSA! |
