Do Employers Legally Have To Offer Meal Breaks?

The labor laws in different states dictate the various provisions and rights that an employee is entitled to as his or her rights. There are numerous breaks that an employee should enjoy, including meal breaks. The Fair Labor Standards Act states clearly what meal breaks, as well as rest breaks, are and what they entail.

Meal breaks are considered to be the time given to an employee to have his or her meal. Most employers consider this as a good morale to the workers, and believe that it promotes social relationships between the employees. It’s also believed that firms that provide meal breaks to their employees are more productive than firms that don’t do it.

It should, however, be noted that the federal law on labor standards does not direct employers under the Fair Labor Standard Act to offer meal breaks to employees. It’s therefore at the discretion of the employers to decide whether to give or deny employees the meal breaks.

Of the fifty-two states, only nineteen states have regulations and legislation that require employers to offer their employees meal breaks. A few of the states that offer meal breaks are: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire and New York.

For any time the workers work in a firm, the law requires that they get paid for all those hours. As an employee, you should know that meal breaks are not considered as work time, hence under the FLSA are not required to be paid. However, for this rule to apply, the following criteria have to be met:

The employee has to get completely relieved from his duty so as to eat his regular meals, and that the meal breaks must be thirty minutes or more. In case you as the employee get engaged in other duties that you have to perform, you can’t be considered to be completely relieved from duty. It doesn’t matter whether you engage in those tasks actively or inactively while eating.

If you, or someone you know, are facing legal issues in the workplace United Employees Law Group has the answers. Call Today for your free and confidential case review. Please feel free to CONTACT US with any questions about this blog or your exact situation.