Human Resource Blog

Salary exempt lunch

Can an Ohio company require that their salary exempt employees take 1 hour for lunch as opposed to 1/2 hour? Employer allowed,whether knowingly or not, 1/2 hour for lunch for 2 years. Now employer states it has to be a full hour. Requirement supposedly covered in meeting but nothing is in writing. Employer requires 44-45 hours per week including Saturdays even if hour requirement met Mon - Fri.

We are not sure why this is such an issue — it looks to us like the exempt employees are being asked to work 2.5 hours less every week. But the answer is yes, as an employer you can require that exempt employees take a 60-minute lunch break.

Many times, employees want to take a shorter lunch break so that they can go home early, but the two issues are not related. As the employer, you set the expected work hours for exempt employees, as well as hourly employees. You can require that an exempt employee put in 45 hours per week or 145 hours per week, for that matter. Any exempt employee who does not meet your expectations can be disciplined or terminated.

You can also establish normal business hours during which exempt employees must be present — perhaps 8 am to 6 pm. You can discipline or terminate an exempt employee who leaves before quitting time, even if the exempt employee curtailed his or her lunch in order to do so.

An employee who leaves early must be paid his or her usual weekly salary, but can be disciplined or terminated.

Employers set the policies in the workplace, and have the right to change those policies at any time. There is no requirement that the policies be in writing, or that employees agree to the new policies. In this case, you have informed the employees of the new policy.

Our recommendation: quit focusing on the length of the lunch hour. Exempt employees can take as much or as little lunch as they like…as long as they do not leave work early.