Breaks

All Employees

Employers must give meal breaks to employees to ensure they do not work more than 5 consecutive hours without an opportunity for a break. There is no requirement to pay an employee for this meal break unless they perform work during the meal break, or are available to perform work.

A meal break is a continuous period of at least one-half hour during which the employee is allowed to eat. Informal “coffee breaks”, or breaks of less than ½ hour, are not considered meal breaks for purposes of this section. These informal breaks cannot be added up and substituted for a continuous ½-hour meal break as required by this section.

Depending on the length of the shift, or how the breaks are scheduled, the employer may be required to give more than one meal break per shift.