A California meal or rest break penalty is one additional hour of pay at your regular rate of compensation for each workday a required break is not provided, with at most one meal premium and one rest premium per workday. This California meal break penalty calculator works out your regular rate (including bonuses and commissions), shows the breaks your shift length requires, and totals the premiums for the days you missed a meal period or a rest period.
Premiums add up quickly. At $25 an hour, a missed meal period on 3 days a week comes to about $3,900 a year, and the claim can reach back 3 years.
Leave at 0 if you earn only an hourly wage.
About 250 workdays is one year of full-time work.
Premiums = (days with a meal violation + days with a rest violation) x regular rate of compensation
Labor Code 226.7 says that if an employer fails to provide a meal, rest or recovery period required by state law or an Industrial Welfare Commission order, the employer shall pay the employee one additional hour of pay at the employee's regular rate of compensation for each workday that the period is not provided. The wage orders set a meal period premium and a separate rest period premium, so a single day can carry two premiums, one for each type of break.
Missing more than one rest period in a day does not multiply the premium. The Labor Commissioner explains that if an employer does not provide all of the rest periods required in a workday, the employee is entitled to one additional hour of pay for that workday, not one additional hour for each rest period missed.
In Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel (2021), the California Supreme Court held that the regular rate of compensation in Labor Code 226.7 has the same meaning as the regular rate of pay used for overtime, and encompasses all nondiscretionary payments, not just hourly wages. Its illustration: an employee paid $20 an hour for 40 hours plus $10 a chair for 20 chairs earns $1,000 in the week, or $25 an hour. The calculator follows the same approach: your hourly pay plus the week's nondiscretionary bonuses or commissions, divided by the hours worked that week. The court applied the rule retroactively, so it also covers past premiums.
| Hours worked in the day | Paid 10-minute rest periods | 30-minute meal periods |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 3.5 | 0 | 0 |
| 3.5 to 5 | 1 | 0 |
| More than 5, up to 6 | 1 | 1 (can be waived by mutual consent) |
| More than 6, up to 10 | 2 | 1 |
| More than 10, up to 12 | 3 | 2 (second can be waived if the first was not) |
| More than 12, up to 14 | 3 | 2 |
Meal periods. Under Labor Code 512, an employer may not employ someone for a work period of more than 5 hours a day without a meal period of at least 30 minutes, and more than 10 hours without a second one. The first meal period must start no later than the end of the fifth hour of work, and the second no later than the end of the tenth hour. Unless you are relieved of all duty for the full 30 minutes, the meal period is on duty and must be paid; an on-duty meal period is allowed only when the nature of the work prevents relief and there is a written agreement you can revoke.
Rest periods. Employers must authorize and permit a net 10 minutes of paid rest for every 4 hours worked or major fraction thereof, which the Labor Commissioner reads as anything more than 2 hours. No rest period is required for a workday of less than three and one-half hours. Rest time is paid, and it should fall near the middle of each work period when practicable.
Three years to claim. In Murphy v. Kenneth Cole Productions (2007), the California Supreme Court held that the extra hour of pay is a wage, so a three-year statute of limitations applies. The Labor Commissioner advises filing within 3 years of the violation.
Interest. In Naranjo v. Spectrum Security Services (2022), the court held that the 7 percent default rate set by the state constitution applies to prejudgment interest on amounts due for missed meal and rest breaks. Our prejudgment interest calculator can estimate it.
Final pay and wage statements. Naranjo also held that missed-break premium pay constitutes wages subject to the same timing and reporting rules as other compensation. Premiums still unpaid when you quit or are fired can support a waiting time penalty of up to 30 days' wages, and premiums left off your pay stub can support a wage statement claim.
An employer may not coerce, pressure or create incentives for employees to skip breaks. Break claims are often combined with other workplace claims; see our wrongful termination settlement calculator and lost wages settlement calculator.
One additional hour of pay at your regular rate of compensation for each workday a required meal period was not provided. A separate hour is owed for a workday with a missed rest period.
Yes, one for a meal period violation and one for a rest period violation. Missing two rest periods on the same day still earns only one rest premium for that day.
Yes. The California Supreme Court held in Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel that the regular rate of compensation includes all nondiscretionary payments, not just hourly wages.
When you work more than 5 hours in a day, with a second meal period after more than 10 hours. The first must start by the end of the fifth hour. Waivers are allowed for days of no more than 6 hours (first meal) and 12 hours (second meal).
A paid 10-minute rest period for every 4 hours worked or major fraction thereof: 1 for 3.5 to 6 hours, 2 for more than 6 up to 10, and 3 for more than 10 up to 14.
Three years. The premium is a wage, so the three-year statute of limitations applies.