Are lunch breaks paid?

Short breaks are paid time. A real meal break usually is not. Where the line falls, and which states require breaks at all.

Last reviewed September 23, 2026 by Time Card Calculator Tool

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Whether a break is paid decides whether it comes off your hours, so it changes every total on a time card. The federal answer is short, the state answers vary, and the deciding question in both is whether you were actually free from work.

The federal rule

Federal law does not require employers to give any breaks. But if they do, the Fair Labor Standards Act rules decide whether they are paid:

• Rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes are hours worked and must be paid (29 CFR 785.18). An employer cannot deduct a 15 minute coffee break from your time.
• Bona fide meal periods, ordinarily 30 minutes or more, are not hours worked and can be unpaid (29 CFR 785.19), but only if you are completely relieved from duty.

"Completely relieved" is the part that matters. If you eat at your desk and answer the phone, stay at a machine, watch a counter, or are regularly interrupted, the meal period is working time and has to be paid, even if it is scheduled as unpaid. You do not have to be allowed to leave the building for a meal to be unpaid, but you must be free of work.

States that require meal breaks

California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington also require paid rest breaks, usually 10 minutes for every 4 hours worked. In California, a missed meal or rest break earns an extra hour of pay at the regular rate for each workday it happens.

Automatic lunch deductions

Many payroll systems deduct 30 minutes a day automatically instead of asking employees to punch out and back in. That is allowed, but the employer remains responsible for paying for any meal period that was worked through or cut short. If your lunch was interrupted, tell your supervisor or payroll the same day and ask for the deduction to be reversed. Keep a note of the dates.

Entering breaks on a time card

In the time card calculator, enter lunch out and lunch in times to subtract the actual meal break. If your employer uses an automatic deduction instead, leave the lunch fields empty and set the unpaid break under "Overtime, rounding and breaks"; it is applied only on days without lunch punches. Do not enter paid rest breaks at all, since they stay in your hours.

Short lunches

A meal break shorter than 30 minutes can still be unpaid under federal rules in special conditions, but a 15 or 20 minute "lunch" is more often treated as a rest break, which means it must be paid. If your employer schedules a 20 minute unpaid lunch, check your state's rule: Illinois allows 20 minutes, most other states that regulate meals require 30.