California Meal and Rest Break Lawyer

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When the Breaks the Law Requires Did Not Happen

California requires employers to provide non-exempt employees with specific meal and rest breaks during the workday. A 30-minute unpaid meal period for every shift over five hours, and a second meal period for shifts over ten hours. A 10-minute paid rest break for every four hours worked. The employer must “provide” the breaks — meaning relieve the employee of all duty and not impede the break — and any missed or interrupted break triggers one hour of premium pay at the employee’s regular rate. Employers across California violate these rules constantly, especially in retail, hospitality, healthcare, food service, and warehousing.

A California meal and rest break lawyer is the person who recovers the premium pay California law requires. KBK Lawyers represents California employees in individual and class-wide meal-and-rest-break cases.

The California Rules

Meal periods:

  • 30-minute unpaid meal period for shifts over 5 hours
  • Second 30-minute meal period for shifts over 10 hours
  • Must be provided no later than the end of the fifth hour (or tenth hour for the second)
  • Employee must be relieved of all duty and free to leave the premises
  • “On-duty” meal periods only allowed in narrow circumstances with written waiver
  • One hour of premium pay (at the regular rate) for every day of missed, late, or interrupted meal period

Rest breaks:

  • 10-minute paid rest period for every 4 hours worked (or major fraction)
  • Generally must be in the middle of each four-hour period
  • Employee must be relieved of all duty
  • One hour of premium pay for every day of missed or interrupted rest break

A California meal and rest break lawyer reviews the time records, the schedules, and the company’s break policies to identify every category of violation.

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Why KBK Lawyers

Brian Kabateck has decades of California plaintiffs’ experience. He is a past President of Consumer Attorneys of California and a past President of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles. Our firm handles individual wage cases, PAGA representative actions, and break-violation class actions across California.

 

The firm secured a $15 million settlement in a class action lawsuit against Coca-Cola Bottling of Los Angeles on behalf of current and former employees, specifically for the company’s failure to provide legally required meal and rest periods.
 
A California meal and rest break lawyer at our firm pursues the premium pay, the related wage statement penalties, and the attorney’s fees the law requires.

What You Can Recover

  • One hour of premium pay per day of missed or interrupted meal period
  • One hour of premium pay per day of missed or interrupted rest break
  • Waiting-time penalties at termination
  • Wage-statement penalties (Labor Code section 226)
  • PAGA penalties (75% to the state, 25% to the employee group)
  • Attorney’s fees and costs paid by the employer

Deadlines

Meal and rest break claims allow three years (or four years under the Unfair Competition Law). PAGA claims require a written LWDA notice within one year. A California meal and rest break lawyer at our firm maps every applicable deadline at the first call.

Frequently Asked Questions

The employer is required to “provide” the break — meaning genuinely allow it. If the workload, the staffing, or the employer’s culture made breaks impractical, the breaks were not “provided” and premium pay is owed regardless of who technically skipped the break.

On-duty meal periods are only valid in narrow circumstances with a written waiver from the employee. If you were required to be reachable, monitor a phone, or be ready to return, the meal period was likely not compliant and premium pay is owed.

Premium pay is one hour at the regular rate per day per type of violation, going back three years (or four under the UCL). For high-violation workplaces, the recoveries are substantial — and PAGA penalties multiply the value on representative actions.