Human Resource Blog

Meal Breaks

Question: I work for a municipal township in NJ they have informed us that if we take a AM & PM break that it will be deducted from our hour lunch break which we are not paid for, is this legal? We have in the past taken an am and pm break plus our lunch. They state that we are on a 35 hour work week. Also, in order to get overtime, we must work 5 additional hours at straight time to get overtime for a 40 hour work week.

To take your questions one at a time…under federal law, an employee must be paid for any breaks shorter than 20 minutes. There is no New Jersey law that requires employers to give workers meal breaks or rest breaks, so the employer is free to set any policies that he or she likes. It sounds like the employer is saying, “You can take a 60 minute lunch, or you can take a 30 minute lunch plus two 15 minute breaks.” That is perfectly legal — as long as the employee is paid for the two 15 minute breaks. This is under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which applies to private employers as well as federal, state and local governments. (A few occupations are exempt from FLSA guidelines.)

The FLSA also requires that employers pay workers overtime after 40 hours. There is no state or federal law that requires overtime after 35 hours, even if the normal workweek is 35 hours.

More about the FLSA is at: http://www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-flsa.htm