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Pennsylvania Break Law

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In Pennsylvania, are employers required to give breaks under any state or federal law? Does it matter how old the employee is, or if it’s in the fast food industry?

No, employers are not required to give breaks in Pennsylvania. Most states, in fact, don’t require employers to give breaks to workers. Employees under 18, however, are covered by child labor laws.

Among many of the states besides Pennsylvania without break laws are Utah, Georgia, North Carolina, Alaska, Arizona, Alabama, Texas, and Florida. In these states, an employer can require an employee to work all day without a break, even on shifts that last 16 hours or longer. No meal break, short rest break, or smoking break is required in these states.

However, many employers in these and other states give breaks anyway. There has been research showing that employees are more productive if they receive breaks. So during a normal work day, two 15 minute rest breaks and a half-hour meal break during an 8-hour shift is not unusual.

There a few states where the law entitles all workers to breaks. Colorado, Oregon, Kentucky, Nevada, and Washington are among them. California is another. It requires a 10 minute break during every 4 hour work stretch, as do the others mentioned above. Laws in these states stipulate that the break should be as close as possible to the middle of those 4 hours. In Minnesota, on the other hand, there is a break law, but it only stipulates that employees receive what is called a “reasonable break” to use the nearest restroom, once during a 4 hour stretch.

Illinois is one of those states that has a break law, but only for some kinds of workers. Illinois’ law applies only to hotel room attendants in the state’s largest city, Chicago. Hotel room attendants are legally entitled to two quarter-hour paid breaks and a single half-hour unpaid break during each shift that lasts 7 hours or more. However, employers are not required to give breaks to workers over 18 in any other part of the state, or in any other industry within Chicago. JH