California meal and rest break rules
When each break is due, what makes it late, and the extra hour of pay a missed one costs.
Last reviewed October 30, 2026. This article explains the rules in plain words. It is not legal advice: your company and its counsel decide your policy.
California is the strictest state for breaks. An employer must provide them, and when it does not, it owes one extra hour of pay. This is how the rules work for non-exempt employees under Labor Code 512 and 226.7 and the wage orders.
The first meal break#
A work period of more than 5 hours needs a meal break of 30 minutes, uninterrupted and off duty, that starts before the end of the fifth hour. In practice that means by 4 hours and 59 minutes after the shift starts.
If the whole workday is 6 hours or less, the employee and employer can agree to waive the meal.
The second meal break#
A work period of more than 10 hours needs a second 30-minute meal that starts before the end of the tenth hour. It can be waived only if the day is 12 hours or less and the first meal was not waived.
Rest breaks#
Rest breaks are 10 minutes, paid, for every 4 hours worked or major fraction of 4 hours:
| Hours worked | Rest breaks |
|---|---|
| 3.5 to 6 | 1 |
| More than 6 to 10 | 2 |
| More than 10 to 14 | 3 |
They should fall in the middle of each work period where practical, and the employee must be fully off duty, including off call. Rest breaks need not be recorded, but they are paid time.
What a missed break costs#
A missed, short or late meal break costs one extra hour of pay at the regular rate of compensation for that workday. A missed rest break costs another hour, separate from the meal premium. So a day can owe at most two premiums: one for meals, one for rests.
The regular rate includes non-discretionary pay such as shift differentials, not only the base rate (Ferra v. Loews, 2021).
Premiums are wages#
The California Supreme Court held in Naranjo v. Spectrum Security (2022) that premiums are wages. They must appear on the wage statement, and paying them late can trigger waiting-time penalties. That is why they need their own earning codes in payroll.
Records create a presumption#
Employers must provide breaks, not police them (Brinker, 2012). But when time records show a missed or late meal, the law presumes a violation unless the employer can show otherwise (Donohue v. AMN, 2021). That makes accurate, unrounded meal punches important.
Construction#
Construction employees fall under Wage Order 16, with the same timing rules. A qualifying collective bargaining agreement can change the meal rules under Labor Code 512(e).
How Oh! Thyme handles it#
Oh! Thyme checks every shift against these rules from the raw punches, works out the meal and rest premiums, shows each missed or late break at the top of the supervisor's approval list, and sends the premiums to payroll as their own pay types. See breaks and overtime.
Sources#
- Labor Code 512: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
- Labor Code 226.7: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
- US Department of Labor, rest periods by state: dol.gov
- Wage Order 16, construction: dir.ca.gov
- Brinker v. Superior Court (2012) 53 Cal.4th 1004; Augustus v. ABM (2016) 2 Cal.5th 257; Donohue v. AMN (2021) 11 Cal.5th 58; Ferra v. Loews (2021) 11 Cal.5th 858; Naranjo v. Spectrum Security (2022) 13 Cal.5th 93