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Vermont Break Laws

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

While no federal law requires breaks of any kind — meal, cigarette, coffee, or rest breaks — research has demonstrated that employees are more productive when they receive breaks.

That’s why most businesses have opted for giving at least a half-hour meal break and two 15 minute rest breaks during a typical working shift.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) steps in to regulate payment for breaks, however. According to the FLSA, workers must be paid for any breaks that are less than 20 minutes long. The other side of that coin is that employers need not pay workers for breaks that are 20 minutes long or more.

The exception, however, is employee “availability.” In other words, if an employer expects a worker to be available during her or his meal break, then that time must be paid for. Take the example of a receptionist who eats her or his lunch at the desk to be available if the telephone rings. She or he must be paid for that time even if the phone never rings. The same is true, for example, for the graphic artist who takes lunch on the fly while continuing a design project.

Employers must not discriminate when offering breaks to employees; that would be illegal. For example, it would be against the law to provide breaks to the Caucasian staff while not to the African-American or Asian staff members.

Child labor laws step in to protect those workers who are under 18 years old. Many states require that they receive meal breaks. Most states in the nation requires the same for workers under 16.

A few states, California and Oregon among them, have their own laws governing break times. They require almost all workers to get regular breaks and a meal break on each shift.

Many states have no such laws at all. In those states, an employer could require an employee to work 16 hours or more without any kind of break, including rest breaks or breaks for meals. Among them are Texas, Florida, Arizona, Alabama, Alaska, North Carolina, Utah, and Georgia. JH