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Wyoming Break Laws

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Is there any federal law that a Wyoming employer must give coffee beaks or meal breaks to workers?

There is no federal law and no Wyoming law that requires employers to give workers breaks. It means that, theoretically at least, an employer could make an employee work 16 hours or more without breaks of any kind. That could include not only meal breaks, but rest breaks or smoking breaks as well.

A few states require breaks, among them Oregon and California. In those states, employers must provide almost all workers with regular breaks and one meal break on each working shift.

And sometimes union contracts require breaks. Many of them include stipulations that employees receive paid or unpaid breaks.

Federal law does speak to breaks in one regard. The Fair Labor Standards Act, otherwise known as the FLSA, says workers must be paid for any breaks less than 20 minutes long. Of course another way to interpret the FLSA is that employers are not obligated to pay for breaks that are 20 minutes long or more.

Nevertheless, employees must be paid if an employer requires them to be available for work during their meal breaks. As an example, a receptionist who with sandwich in hand, stays at her desk during her meal break to be available if the telephone rings must be paid for that break, even if the phone never rings and she technically never “works” during that time. The key is “availability.”

While federal or state laws have little to say on the matter of breaks, most employers realize that research has shown that employees are more productive if they receive breaks. Most employers, at a minimum, offer one half-hour meal break and two 15 minute rest breaks on any given shift.

Among the many states that have no break laws of their own are Alaska, Arizona, Alabama, Texas, Florida, Utah, North Carolina, and Georgia.

In the case of workers under 18 years old, child labor laws usually offer protections. Many states guarantee meal breaks for employees under 18. Almost every state nationwide provides the same for workers under 16. JH