Meal and Rest Break Rights in California: What Employers Often Get Wrong

If you’re clocking in long shifts in California, you might assume your employer has your back when it comes to breaks. But in practice, many employers get it wrong, or worse, push you into forfeiting your rights without even telling you.

At In Motion Law, we believe understanding your legal entitlements can flip the power balance. Here’s what California law actually says about meal and rest breaks and where employers often misstep.

What California Law Requires

First, don’t rely on generic promises or HR handbooks. Your rights are rooted in California Labor Code § 512 and Labor Code § 226.7, plus the Industrial Welfare Commission wage orders.

Here’s the core framework:

• If you work more than 5 hours in a day, you’re entitled to a 30-minute, duty-free meal break.
• If you work more than 10 hours, you get a second 30-minute meal break.
• For rest breaks, non-exempt employees must receive a 10-minute paid break for every 4 hours worked (or major fraction thereof).

Meal breaks are unpaid, provided they are fully off duty and uninterrupted. Rest breaks are paid and must be treated as working time.

Important nuance: the employer must provide the opportunity for those breaks, not necessarily ensure you take them. In Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court, the California Supreme Court made clear the employer’s role is to relieve you of duty, relinquish control, and permit an uninterrupted break without hindrance or discouragement.

Where Employers Often Get It Wrong

Here’s how employers in California can get it wrong when it comes to their employees’ meal and rest break rights.

1. Delayed or deferred meal breaks

Some employers push your lunch past the 5-hour mark or shift it arbitrarily. That’s illegal if it violates the timing threshold.

2. Combining meal and rest breaks

You can’t be forced to take one long block and count it for both your rest and meal break. They must remain separate.

3. Interruption during breaks

If your break is interrupted (boss calls you, assigns a task, requires you to monitor equipment) that break no longer counts. You should be afforded another full break to satisfy the law.

4. Forcing you to stay on premises or stay “on call”

During meal breaks, you should be free: no micromanaging, no pending obligations. During rest breaks, the employer can’t require you to stay tethered to work (unless a rare, statutory exception applies).

5. Misapplying waivers improperly

For shifts 6 hours or less, the first meal break may be waived by mutual consent, but only if parties agree freely and no coercion is involved.

For shifts 10–12 hours, a second meal break can sometimes be waived, but only if the first was not waived and both sides consent.

You can’t skip both meal breaks with a waiver.

Employers often fail to get written waivers (though best practice would be to document), or they pressure employees to waive without explaining rights.

What Happens When Rights Are Violated

If your employer fails to comply, the law gives you a remedy: for each workday a violation occurs, you’re owed one additional hour of pay at your regular rate for each missed meal or rest break.

That means if both a meal break and rest break are improperly denied, you may be owed two “premium pay” hours in a single day.

Additionally, these are wage claims that may be enforced by the Labor Commissioner or via court action. The statute of limitations for such claims is generally three years under the California Supreme Court’s decisions, though in some cases shorter periods may apply.

If you think your rights were violated, do the following:

• Keep detailed records (timecards, break logs, notes when you were denied or interrupted)
• Save communications (texts, emails, memos from supervisors telling you to skip or delay a break)
• Look for patterns, as it often helps if others share your experience (payroll, coworkers)
• Send a demand notice, as sometimes a written demand spurs the employer to correct behavior or settle.
• Contact a San Diego employment lawyer to help you bring a claim against the employer and resolve the matter in your favor.

At In Motion Law, we can evaluate whether your employer’s break practices violate the law, quantify how much you’re owed in unpaid break premiums, and handle claims administratively or via civil lawsuits.

Think Your Meal and Rest Break Rights Were Violated? We Can Help

Don’t let your employer skate on meal and rest break laws just because you don’t know your rights. If you suspect you were denied lawful breaks or pressured to waive them contact our office today for a consultation. Call at 619-693-8336 to get started.