Human Resource Blog

Virginia lunch/smoking breaks

Is an employer in the state of Virginia required by law to give employees paid lunch breaks? Smoking breaks? Rest Breaks or breaks of any kind?

The answer to all of your questions is: No, Virginia does not require lunch breaks, smoking breaks, meal or rest breaks for employees. OSHA standards require that employees be permitted to use the bathroom when nature calls, and to drink water on duty.

No state in the U.S. requires employers to give workers paid lunch breaks. Under the federal FLSA or Fair Labor Standards Act, employees must be paid for rest breaks of less than 20 minutes. They need not be paid for meal breaks that are more than 20 minutes as long as they are relieved of all duties. However, that federal law does not require that employers give breaks — it merely establishes payment requirements, if the employer chooses to give breaks.

Nineteen states do require unpaid meal breaks for nearly every employee. Virginia is not one of them.

About eight of those states also require paid rest breaks for employees. Virginia is not one of them.

There is no state in the union that requires smoke breaks for employees, paid or unpaid.

The best practice in HR in most industries is to give one unpaid meal break of 30 minutes or more, and two paid rest breaks of 10 to 15 minutes, 8 hour per shift. However, there is no law that requires this.