Meal & Rest Breaks

jjacobs · September 2007

When we pay employees, we round down and pay 8 hours if their time card says 8:07 and we round up and pay .25 overtime if their timecard says 8:08.
Does the same apply too if they take lunch at 5:07 hours? Do we have to pay the extra one hour of pay if the go over 5 hours even by 1 minute?
help!!

allsteaks · September 2007

The 5 hour limitation must be a State reg. because FLSA does not require breaks at any particular time. We're in Kansas and have no such State limitations, although our labor agreements have language addressing time limitations between breaks. Sorry, can't help beyond that.

NeedCoffee · September 2007

ditto. Texas doesn't require you give them breaks whatsoever!

I would check and see if your state's DOL has a Q&A page or FAQ page.

Sorry I can't be of more help!

dynamite9551 · September 2007

i can only recite what Kentucky regs say and i bet they model theirs after federal. anyway....KRS337.355 - employees shall be given lunch periods no sooner than three hours after the start of the shift nor more than five hours from the time the work begins. I would think if they begin their lunch 5 hours and 7 mins. after they start their shift, they would return 1 hour later.

davids · September 2007

I will weigh in with Oregon's perspective. Rest and meal breaks are mandated to be taken at certain times "as practicable." The "as practicable" language does allow for an employee to take the meal break a bit later if there is a legitimate reason, such as the employee was helping a customer. Our law does not require the employee to say "sorry, it's my lunch time, so I can't help you any more."

As for the rounding, I think you are okay as long as you are consitent in rounding both up and down. We usually pay according to six-minute blocks, which equals one-tenth of an hour. It makes record keeping pretty simple.

Meal & Rest Breaks

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