Human Resource Blog

THIRD SHIFT AND BREAKS IN NJ

	Benefits
Total Compensation Summary Performance Improvement Plan Performance Appraisal and Review Employee Payroll Status/Change Form Employee Change Form

	Compensation
Employee Payroll Action Form W-4 Employee Withholding Allowance Cert. Employee Payroll Status/Change Form Direct Deposit Form Total Compensation Summary

i WORK 3RD SHIFT ON MY JOB 11PM TO 7AM WITH NO BREAKS. WE ONLY GET PAID FOR 7 HOURS, BUT HAVE TO WORD ALL EIGHT. iS THIS LEGAL IN NJ. ALSO THEY PAY THE SAME RATE ON THIRD SHIFT AS THEY DO ALL OTHERS, IS THIS LEGAL IN NJ

First the bad news. There is no state or federal law in New Jersey that an employer must give workers over the age of 18 a meal break. Nor is there a law that workers must be given shorter “coffee” or rest breaks.

Here’s the page on the state website about employment regulations. Scroll down for the question on breaks.

However, OSHA standards require that employees be allowed to use the restroom as necessary.

New Jersey, along with 34 other states plus federal law, does require meal periods for some workers under the age of 18.

There is also no federal or New Jersey law that requires employees on a night shift to be paid a premium, or a higher wage than workers on the day shift. This is entirely a private agreement between the employer and employee.

Now the good news. Federal law requires that workers be paid for all the time that they work. So, if you are working 8 hours per day and only being paid for 7 hours per day, the employer is probably in violation of both federal and state law.

In this question, it sounds like the employer is deducting an hour for breaks that the employees are not actually allowed to take. This is totally illegal, under both state and federal wage laws.

The New Jersey State Wage Payment Law requires employers to pay employees for all time worked. This law is enforced by the Wage & Hour Division of the New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development at  609-292-2305.

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA also requires that employers pay employees for all time worked. This law is enforced by the Wage & Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor at 866-487-9243.

Employers who automatically deduct breaks from workers’ hours, regardless of whether the workers actually receive a break or not, are playing a dangerous game. In a number of cases, the U.S. Department of Labor has filed suits to force employers to pay back wages for exactly this reason. In one recent case, Walmart paid $11 million to workers, partly because their lunch break was automatically deducted from their wages, whether they were able to take it or not.