Employees have the right to take their legally mandated meal and rest breaks. If your current or former employer in California failed to provide them, you could be owed back pay and penalties. Meal and rest violations are unlawful. At Elite Employment Law, our employment lawyers have been leading the way in employment rights for over a decade, holding companies responsible for their treatment of employees and recovering millions for our clients.
California Rights to Meal and Rest Periods
California Law sets strict standards for providing nonexempt employees with uninterrupted, duty-free break and meal times. A break is not compliant if the employee is required to monitor a radio, answer calls, or remain on-call. For every five hours of work, employees must be given a 30-minute meal period. An employee should be granted a second meal break if they work more than 10 hours a day and must be provided no later than the beginning of the eleventh hour of work.
Rest periods must be provided every three and a half hours of work. These occur in 10-minute intervals and must also be uninterrupted and duty-free. While some situations exist where meal breaks can be waived by an employee, rest periods cannot and are always considered paid work time, provided by the employer. If you are forced to work through your rest period or are not provided a meal break, you may be owed compensation.
Industry Specific Labor Rights
For some industries, meal and rest breaks are governed by different labor laws. These industries include healthcare, the motion picture and broadcasting industry, agricultural workers, and jobs in construction, drilling, logging, and mining. As these sectors have varying conditions and scheduling requirements, rules surrounding rest and recovery breaks can differ. If you are employed in one of these industries and believe your employer failed to adhere to their specialized, protective regulations, you may be entitled to significant recovery.
Compensation for Employer Meal and Rest Violations
California Law requires employers that fail to comply with break requirements to pay employees one hour of additional pay at the normal rate for each specific violation per work day. For larger companies, these individual violations quickly multiply, creating significant financial liability for the employer.
An example of this situation could be if an employer denies you a meal break and a rest break, you would be owed two hours of penalty pay for that single day. This compensation is required to come in your next paycheck. This amount would be calculated using your regular rate of pay, which includes commissions and bonuses, often resulting in a higher payout than the base hourly rate.
Work With an Employment Attorney to Recover Your Wages
If your employer profited from illegal labor practices such as meal and rest violations, an Orange County employment law attorney can help you secure the full compensation you are entitled to, including unpaid wages and all applicable penalties for violations such as these.
Beyond individual claims, we can pursue remedies under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) to recover substantial civil penalties on behalf of other affected employees. Do not delay in pursuing your rightful compensation, as California has a strict statute of limitations on labor violation claims. The statute of limitations for these claims is generally three years. Consulting an experienced attorney gives you more time to make sure fresh evidence is gathered and all claims are filed before the strict deadlines expire.