Human Resource Blog

South Carolina Break Laws

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

No breaks whatsoever, whether they’re meal breaks, coffee breaks, rest breaks, or smoking breaks, are required by federal law. And many states have no break laws of their own, including South Carolina.

There are exceptions under federal law for workers in some industries, such as trucking.

Federal law regulates one aspect of breaks, however. The regulation is found in the FLSA, or Fair Labor Standards Act, which stipulates that workers must be paid for any breaks that are less than 20 minutes long. The flip side of that, of course, is that employers are not legally obligated to pay for breaks that are 20 minutes long or more, unless the employee must be “available” for work during that break time.

To understand the concept of “availability,” consider the case of a receptionist who eats a lunch sandwich at her or his desk in order to be able to answer the telephone if it should ring. That worker is entitled to be paid during that time, because the employer is essentially paying the person to be available. The same would apply, for example, to the graphic artist who sandwich in hand, continues designing during a meal break.

Workers under 18 are protected by child labor laws. Many states require that any worker under 18 must get a meal break. And in almost all states, the same applies to workers under 16.

Labor contracts frequently require breaks. The wording of such contracts often specifies that workers are entitled to or unpaid paid breaks.

Employers must be careful not to discriminate when offering breaks to employees, which would be illegal. For example, it would be against the law for an employer to deny African-American employees break times while granting them to everyone else.

Many states have no break laws. They include Arizona, Alabama, Texas, Florida, Alaska, Georgia, North Carolina, and Utah. In those states, an employer could, theoretically at least, require an employee to work 16 hours or more without a meal, cigarette, or rest break. In reality, few do, because research has shown that workers are more productive when breaks are included. Most employers offer at least a 30-minute meal break and two 15 minute rest breaks. JH