Meal and Rest Break Laws by State

Breaks by state

Does the law require breaks at work?

Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks, so no federal rule makes an employer give adult workers a break. What the federal Fair Labor Standards Act does is decide which breaks are paid. Under the Department of Labor's rules, rest periods of short duration, running from 5 minutes to about 20 minutes, must be counted as hours worked. A bona fide meal period is not work time, but only if you are completely relieved from duty, and ordinarily 30 minutes or more is long enough. So if your employer offers a 15-minute break it has to pay for it, and if it makes you eat at your desk while answering the phone, that lunch is paid time too.

Whether you get a break at all is a state question. Twenty-one states have a meal or lunch rule for adults in private jobs, and nine have a rest break rule, several of them only for certain workplaces or jobs. The other states, including Texas, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey and North Carolina, have no general break rule for adults. The table below shows every state and the District of Columbia.

How the break checker works

Enter the state where you work, the length of your shift and the time it starts. The checker applies that state's rule for adult employees: how many meal breaks the shift needs, how long each one is and when it has to start, and how many paid rest breaks you get. The default example is an 8-hour day in California starting at 9:00 a.m.: one 30-minute meal break that has to start by 2:00 p.m. and two paid 10-minute rest breaks.

Some rules only cover certain workplaces, so for those states the checker asks one more question: Maryland's law covers retail stores of employers with 50 or more retail employees in the state, Nebraska's covers assembling plants, workshops and mechanical establishments, Illinois has a separate rule for hotel room attendants in counties of more than 3 million people, and New York gives factory workers longer meal periods. Count only the hours you work, not an unpaid lunch.

States with meal break laws

The meal break rules fall into a few patterns:

• After 5 hours: California, Colorado, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Washington require a meal break once a shift passes 5 hours. California and Washington also say when it has to start: by the end of the fifth hour in California, and between the second and fifth hour in Washington.
• At 6 hours: Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee and West Virginia start at about 6 hours. Rhode Island gives 20 minutes within a 6-hour shift and 30 minutes with an 8-hour shift.
• At 7.5 hours or more: Connecticut and Delaware require 30 minutes for shifts of 7.5 consecutive hours, taken after the first 2 hours and before the last 2 hours. Illinois gives 20 minutes for 7.5 continuous hours, beginning no later than 5 hours into the work period, and Nevada 30 minutes before 8 continuous hours.
• By clock time: New York ties its rules to the time of day: 30 minutes between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. for shifts of more than 6 hours that extend over that period, 20 more minutes between 5 and 7 p.m. for long days, and a longer midway meal for shifts that start between 1 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Kentucky requires a reasonable lunch period that starts between the third and fifth hour of the shift, Vermont requires reasonable opportunities to eat and use toilet facilities, and Maryland and Nebraska cover only the workplaces named above. Long shifts can bring extra meal breaks: a second 30 minutes after 10 hours in California, another 20 minutes for each additional 4.5 continuous hours in Illinois, a second meal period from 14 hours in Oregon, and another 30 minutes in Washington when you work 3 or more hours past your normal day.

States that require paid rest breaks

Paid rest breaks are rarer. California, Colorado, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon and Washington require them for most workers. Illinois requires them only for hotel room attendants in counties of more than 3 million people, and Vermont's rule is the general promise of reasonable opportunities to use the toilet. Most of these states give 10 minutes for every 4 hours, but they count partial periods differently:

• California and Nevada: 10 minutes for each 4 hours or major fraction, and no rest break for a day under 3.5 hours. California's Labor Commissioner counts anything more than 2 hours as a major fraction, so a shift of 3.5 to 6 hours gets one break, over 6 to 10 hours gets two, and over 10 to 14 hours gets three.
• Colorado and Oregon: the same idea without the 3.5-hour floor. Both publish charts that start with one break for anything over 2 hours; Oregon's chart gives two 10-minute breaks and one 30-minute meal for an 8-hour day.
• Kentucky and Minnesota: a break during each 4 hours worked. Since January 1, 2026, Minnesota's break is at least 15 minutes, or longer if you need more time to reach the nearest restroom.
• Washington: 10 minutes for each 4 hours of working time, and no one can be required to work more than 3 hours without a rest break.

Break laws for all 50 states and DC

Adult private-sector employees, as of September 28, 2026. The minors column shows whether the state also has a separate meal rule for workers under 18 in the Department of Labor's list. Scroll the table sideways on a phone.

Sources: state codes and labor department pages listed below, checked on September 28, 2026; for states without a rule, and for New Hampshire and Tennessee, the U.S. Department of Labor tables of adult meal and rest periods, last revised January 1, 2023. Exemptions for executive, administrative and professional employees, collective bargaining agreements and state waivers are not shown.

What changed recently

Minnesota rewrote both of its rules effective January 1, 2026. The rest break went from adequate time to use the nearest restroom to a break of at least 15 minutes, or longer if the restroom takes more time, in each 4 consecutive hours. The meal break now comes at 6 consecutive hours instead of 8 and must last at least 30 minutes. An employer that skips either break now owes the break time at the regular rate plus an equal amount as liquidated damages. The Department of Labor's tables still show the older Minnesota rules, which is why this page uses the state code.

Illinois' meal period section, last amended effective January 1, 2023, gives another 20 minutes for every additional 4.5 continuous hours after the first 7.5, so a 12-hour shift gets two meal periods. The Department of Labor's table shows only the first 20-minute period.

Paid or unpaid breaks

Rest breaks in the states that require them are paid, and under the federal rule any short break of up to about 20 minutes is paid wherever you work. Meal breaks are usually unpaid, but only when you are free of all duties. California, Colorado and Oregon allow an on-duty meal when the work makes a real break impossible, and that time is paid. Maine lets the 30 minutes of rest time be unpaid only if you are completely relieved of duty, and Rhode Island says the employer does not have to pay for the mealtime.

If you do not get your break

Remedies differ. In California an employer that does not provide a required rest period owes one additional hour of pay at your regular rate for each workday it happens. Minnesota adds liquidated damages equal to the unpaid break time, and Illinois hotels owe room attendants 3 times their regular hourly rate for each workday without the required breaks. Labor departments take complaints too: in New York, for example, employees can file one with the Department of Labor when a required meal period is not given. Check your pay stub with the paycheck tax withholding calculator, and see overtime pay if skipped breaks push your week past 40 hours.