When you work at your job, you should expect to take regular breaks. These may be used to eat, to go for a walk, to run nearby errands or for another reason, and they are important for your physical and mental well-being.
Fortunately, California has strong laws in place to ensure that you do receive these breaks or that you are fairly compensated if your employer broke the relevant laws and did not provide you with the rest that you need and are legally required to receive.
Exceptions
First, it is important to note that these laws generally only apply to non-exempt employees, who are otherwise known as hourly workers.
Those who are exempt and normally receive a salary as a result will also be able to take breaks, but those specifics depend on a number of other factors. That is mainly because they usually have considerably more autonomy over their day-to-day work schedules.
Independent contractors are also not covered by these laws.
Additionally, some unionized employees follow different regulations that have been agreed upon between the union and the employer and that supersede California Labor Code requirements.
Meal Breaks
For most non-exempt employees, as long as you have worked five or more hours, your employer is required to provide you with a 30-minute meal break. This can start at any point in that initial five-hour span, including 4:59 into it.
If you work 10 or more hours, you will receive two 30-minute breaks.
You are allowed to waive your meal break in some circumstances, such as if you are working fewer than six hours, or one of your two meal breaks if your shift is 10-12 hours. However, this must be a mutual agreement, and you should not be pressured into it.
You will not be paid for any meal breaks unless you are, for example, a sole overnight convenience store employee or the only security guard on duty. In those cases, you will still receive a break, but you will be paid for it since you will essentially be “on call” throughout it. However, this meal-break arrangement must be agreed to in writing, and you can revoke it at any time.
Rest Breaks
If you work at least three-and-a-half hours, you will receive a 10-minute rest break for every four hours that you are on the clock. So, if your shift is 6-10 hours in length, you will receive two of these breaks.
You can skip rest breaks as often as you would like, but you cannot be pressured to do so. Also, you are legally allowed to change your mind at any time about skipping them.
Uninterrupted Breaks
With limited exceptions, both meal and rest breaks should be uninterrupted, meaning that you should not be bothered during them or “on call” in any sense. You should also be allowed to leave the property if there is enough time to do so.
Violations
If there are any violations to your legally required breaks, you can be reimbursed for them as you are entitled to an additional hour of pay for every violation – i.e. every illegally missed or shortened break.
To ensure that this happens, it is important to keep detailed records, and note the statute of limitations, which is three years in most situations.
That said, keep in mind that simply speaking with your employer about these types of issues will often remedy the situation as, sometimes, honest mistakes are made. In that case, you should still be reimbursed for what happened, but this can be a simple solution as far as moving forward is concerned.
