Hours · 2026 rules
Break laws by state: when you are owed a meal period or a rest break
Federal law never requires a lunch break. Whether you get one, and whether short breaks are paid, depends on your state and your shift length.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
No federal law requires employers to give adult workers a meal period or rest breaks. The federal rule only governs pay: short breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes, when an employer offers them, count as paid work time, while a real meal period of usually 30 minutes or more can be unpaid if you are fully relieved of duty. State law adds the actual requirements. Of the 51 jurisdictions covered on this site, 21 require some form of meal period for adults and 9 require rest breaks: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia. The earliest meal trigger is a shift of more than 5 hours, in California, Colorado, Kentucky, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Washington. Where paid rest breaks exist, the usual pattern is 10 minutes for every 4 hours worked. In the other 30, adults have no break right under state law, and 17 of them set rules for minors only. Your employer's policy can always give more.
Breaks owed for your shift
Meal break
30 minutes
| Paid rest breaks | 2 x 10 minutes |
| Meal rule | 30 min after 5 h |
| Rest rule | 10 min per 4 h |
Federal law requires no breaks, but short breaks given must be paid.
The federal rule is about pay, not time off
The Department of Labor page on breaks and meal periods sets out the whole federal position in two sentences of regulation. Short rest breaks, usually 5 to 20 minutes, are compensable work time: if your employer gives them, they must be paid and counted toward the 40 hours that trigger overtime. Bona fide meal periods, typically 30 minutes or more, are not work time and can be unpaid, but only if you are completely relieved of duty. A receptionist who eats at the desk while answering the phone is working, and that time must be paid. Nothing in federal law obliges the employer to schedule either kind of break for adults.
One federal exception does require time off. Under the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, most nursing employees are entitled to reasonable break time to express breast milk, each time they need it, for one year after the child's birth, and to a private place other than a bathroom, as the Wage and Hour Division explains. It is a targeted right, not a general break rule.
Meal periods: when the clock starts
State meal rules are triggered by shift length. In the data, the trigger ranges from more than 5 hours in California, Colorado, Kentucky, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Washington to longer thresholds such as Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois and Nebraska. The required break is most often 30 minutes, uninterrupted and unpaid when you are fully off duty. Several states also say when the meal has to fall: not in the first or last hours of the shift, or within a window around midday, as New York does with its 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. rule. Many allow a written waiver for short shifts, and some allow an on-duty meal that is paid when the nature of the job makes relief impossible, such as a lone overnight clerk.
The details in the table below come from each state's labor agency or statute, as recorded in this site's data. Some rules cover only certain employers, such as large retailers or mechanical workshops, and the text says so where it applies.
| State | Meal period (adults) | Rest breaks (adults) |
|---|---|---|
| California | 30-minute meal period for work periods over 5 hours (waivable by mutual consent if the day is no more than 6 hours); a second 30-minute meal period for over 10 hours (waivable if no more than 12 hours and the first was not waived) | Net 10-minute paid rest period for every 4 hours worked or major fraction thereof (more than 2 hours); not required if the day is under 3.5 hours. Missed meal or rest period = one extra hour of pay per day. |
| Colorado | uninterrupted, duty-free 30-minute meal period for shifts over 5 consecutive hours (paid on-duty meal if relief is impractical) | paid 10-minute rest period for each 4 hours worked or major fraction |
| Connecticut | 30 consecutive minutes for 7.5 or more consecutive hours, after the first 2 hours and before the last 2 hours | no adult rest rule |
| Delaware | unpaid 30 consecutive minutes for 7.5 or more consecutive hours, after the first 2 hours and before the last 2 hours | no adult rest rule |
| Illinois | 20-minute meal break for every 7.5 hours worked, no later than 5 hours after the start of the shift; an additional 20 minutes for shifts of 12 hours or longer | no adult rest rule |
| Kentucky | A reasonable lunch period, as close to mid-shift as possible, starting no sooner than 3 hours and no later than 5 hours after the shift begins | Paid rest period of at least 10 minutes for each 4 hours worked, in addition to the lunch period |
| Maine | Opportunity for at least 30 consecutive minutes of rest after 6 consecutive hours (may be unpaid mealtime if fully relieved of duty) | no adult rest rule |
| Maryland | Only retail establishments with 50+ retail employees (Healthy Retail Employee Act): 15 minutes for 4-6 consecutive hours, 30 minutes for more than 6 hours, plus 15 minutes per additional 4 hours after 8 hours | Retail (50+ employees): 15-minute shift break for 4 to 6 consecutive hours |
| Massachusetts | At least 30 minutes if working more than 6 hours in a calendar day | no adult rest rule |
| Minnesota | At least 30 minutes when working six or more consecutive hours (since January 1, 2026) | At least 15 minutes (or longer if needed to reach the nearest restroom) within each four consecutive hours |
| Nebraska | 30 consecutive minutes per 8-hour shift, only in mechanical establishments, workshops and assembling plants | no adult rest rule |
| Nevada | 30-minute meal period for a continuous 8-hour period | Paid 10-minute rest period per 4 hours worked or major fraction thereof (none if under 3.5 hours a day); not required where only one person is employed |
| New Hampshire | 30-minute lunch or eating period after 5 consecutive hours; if not possible, the employee must be paid while eating and working | no adult rest rule |
| New York | 30 minutes (unpaid) for shifts over 6 hours that span 11 am to 2 pm, taken between 11 am and 2 pm; additional meal periods for early/late shifts | no adult rest rule |
| North Dakota | 30-minute meal period for shifts over 5 hours when two or more employees are on duty (employee may waive) | no adult rest rule |
| Oregon | 30-minute unpaid meal period for work periods of 6 hours or more (relieved of all duties) | Paid 10-minute rest break for each 4-hour segment (two per 8-hour shift) |
| Rhode Island | 20-minute mealtime for a 6-hour shift, 30 minutes for an 8-hour shift (unpaid); not required in licensed health care facilities or where fewer than 3 employees are on site | no adult rest rule |
| Tennessee | 30-minute unpaid meal or rest period when scheduled 6 consecutive hours (not before or during the first hour); exception where the work naturally allows ample rest | no adult rest rule |
| Vermont | reasonable opportunities during work periods to eat (no fixed length or timing) | reasonable opportunities to use toilet facilities |
| Washington | 30-minute meal period starting between the 2nd and 5th hour of the shift; no more than 5 consecutive hours without one | 10-minute paid rest period for each 4 hours worked; no more than 3 hours without a rest period |
| West Virginia | at least 20 minutes for meal breaks in a workday of 6 or more hours, when employees are not otherwise given breaks or allowed to eat while working | no adult rest rule |
Paid rest breaks, shift by shift
Rest breaks are rarer than meal periods. They are written as a number of paid minutes per block of hours worked in California, Colorado, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. Many of those states give an extra break for a remaining major fraction of a block, meaning more than half of it. In California, for example, a 10-hour shift carries 2 paid rest breaks of 10 minutes and a 30-minute meal period, while a 6-hour shift carries 1 rest breaks and a meal period. Rest breaks are paid time and cannot be added together to leave early or to lengthen lunch unless state rules allow it. The mini-simulator applies the rule of the state you pick to any shift length.
Breaks owed for your shift
Meal break
30 minutes
| Paid rest breaks | 2 x 10 minutes |
| Meal rule | 30 min after 5 h |
| Rest rule | 10 min per 4 h |
Federal law requires no breaks, but short breaks given must be paid.
Long shifts, restrooms and rules limited to some workplaces
Double shifts are where the state rules diverge most. A second meal period for very long days is written into the rule in California, so a 12-hour shift there can carry two meals as well as several rest breaks. In states with a single meal rule, a 12-hour day earns the same one meal as a 7-hour day, and any further pause is up to the employer. Nurses, security guards and factory crews on rotating 12-hour schedules should check whether their employer has a written break schedule, because that document, not the statute, will usually govern the second half of the shift.
Restroom access is treated separately. The break rules of Minnesota and Vermont mention restroom access in their own wording. Federal workplace safety rules cover the rest: an OSHA interpretation of its sanitation standard says employers must allow prompt access to toilet facilities and may not impose unreasonable restrictions, so a strict break schedule cannot be used to deny it. That obligation exists even in the states with no break law at all.
Finally, some state rules reach only part of the workforce. The wording of the meal rule in Maryland and Nebraska limits it to certain employers or situations, such as large retailers, factories and workshops, or shifts where a single employee is on duty. Wage orders for specific industries, such as health care or agriculture, can also replace the general rule. If your job sits at the edge of a category, the state labor agency is the one that decides which rule applies.
States with no break law for adults
In 30 of the 51 jurisdictions covered here, an adult can lawfully work a full shift without a scheduled break, and the employer decides by policy. Of those, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin set break rules for workers under 18 only, usually a meal break after a set number of hours for younger teens. The federal pay rule still applies everywhere: if a short break is given, it is paid, and an unpaid lunch must be genuinely free of work. Many employers in these states give breaks anyway, and once a policy promises them, a written policy or contract can be enforced like any other term of employment.
When breaks are missed or interrupted
The remedy depends on the state. Some state laws attach a pay premium or a penalty to a missed break, and the state agency's guidance says how it is calculated. In most places, the first remedy is simply to pay for the time: a meal break that was interrupted by work becomes paid time and may push the week past 40 hours, creating overtime. Keep a note of the dates and how long you actually got, because time records often show an automatic 30-minute deduction that does not match reality. Automatic deductions are allowed only if the break was really taken. Complaints go to the state labor agency, which decides whether the break rule applies to your employer and job; the agency for each state is on its state page. The overtime rules explain how unpaid break time feeds into weekly hours.