Lunch, Break, and Hour Laws You Should Know
Do you get a lunch break? What about a coffee break? How many hours do you work in a week? Think your employer is violating labor laws? Let’s answer your questions!
Basic introduction
Disclaimer: As of this writing, I am not a licensed attorney. This article is for general education only. If you need legal advice, consult a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction.
This article focuses on U.S. law. If you are in another country, hopefully it will give you some ideas to consider and a basic education on general labor laws.
Your employer must follow several sets of laws. Federal labor law applies to all employers in the United States. Each state also has its own additional requirements. Finally, the city in which you work might also have rules for your employer to follow.
Because of the many laws in question, this article gives a basic overview. It then provides links for more information about each state.
Hour limitations and overtime
Federal law requires overtime pay if you work more than 40 hours in a week. This means your employer must pay 1.5 times your normal hourly rate for hours over 40.
Many of the key issues for this topic are exactly what time counts as “hours worked.” The focus is basically whether or not you are doing regular work duties. If so, that is working time that must be paid.
Here are two good examples: 1.) A receptionist regularly eats lunch at her desk, but still answers the phone and greets customers. This is working time. 2.) Paid firefighters play cards at the firehouse while waiting for an alarm. This is working time as well.
For specific answers to your questions, check out Department of Labor pages on hours worked or overtime pay.
Summary – Overtime pay (rate * 1.5) for hours over 40.
Lunch requirements
Under federal law, your employer does not have to provide lunch or coffee breaks. Also, your employer does not have to pay you for lunch breaks that you are given.
However, your state might have mandatory meal breaks. The requirements vary, but many employees are guaranteed a 30 minute meal period per shift. To qualify, your shift will generally need to be 6 hours, and maybe even 8 hours long.
These states require meal periods: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Washington, and West Virginia.
To find your state’s requirements, consult the Department of Labor’s chart on meal periods.
Summary – Some states require. Not paid.
Coffee Breaks
Like meal periods, the federal government does not require coffee breaks. However, any short breaks (usually 5-20 minutes) that you are given must be paid.
A few states give you a right to short breaks. In these states, you generally get a 10-minute break for every 4-hour shift. These states include: California, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.
For your state’s requirements, the Department of Labor has a handy rest period chart.
Summary – Some states require. If given, must be paid.
Minimum wage
The federal minimum wage is currently $5.15. Unless you are a tipped employee, your employer must pay you at least $5.15/hour for every hour you work.
Tipped employees must be paid at least $2.13 per hour. If your hourly rate plus tips doesn’t meet $5.15/hour, your employer must make up the difference.
Note: As of July 24, 2007, the federal minimum wage will be $5.85 per hour.
Many states add extra requirements to the federal minimum wage. Your employer might have to pay more than $5.15 per hour. As of this writing, Vermont has the highest minimum wage: $7.53 per hour.
For the minimum wage in your state, consult this state minimum wage law chart by the Department of Labor.
Summary – At least $5.15 per hour.
Labor website for every state
Other labor law resources
Federal government
United States Department of Labor
Wage and Hour Division
Blogs
Wage Law
Workplace Prof Blog
Women’s Rights Employment Law Blog
George’s Employment Blawg
Labor & Employment Law, HR Law
Anything else?
If I didn’t cover the topic you’re interested in, let me know. And if I made any mistakes here, please correct me.
Drop a comment down below!
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Sleep Hack – Have a Regular Waking Time
Do you plan your schedule around when you have to get up? Do you have varying wake-up times, depending on the day’s activities?
Here’s a better solution – get up at the same time every day.
Look at your schedule and figure out the earliest time you need to be up. Set your alarm for that time. Get up at that time every morning.
Going to bed at the same time usually isn’t as important. If you have a regular waking time, you’ll naturally feel tired around the same time each evening. If you shoot for bedtime at that time and make yourself maintain the waking time, your body will fall into a rhythm.
What does this get you? Lots of things:
- No more fiddling with the alarm clock – just flip it on each night
- A solid daily routine – don’t we all work better with a steady schedule?
- Your biological clock will be happy
- It will be easier to wake up in the mornings
- Your morning ritual can be the same every day
- The family can rely on your waking time
What do you think? Does a regular waking time help you? Or do you get up at varying times every day?
[tags]sleep hack, sleep, wake up[/tags]
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Technorati Sucks, but Friends Rule!
How long have you fiddled with Technorati on your blog? You claim your blog, get the spiffy widget running, build up a fan base, tag all your posts, etc. What do you get in return?
NOTHING
Yes, I’m exaggerating a little. But let me make my point. Technorati just isn’t worth the trouble.
Aside from initial setup, Technorati has other problems. For months now, Technorati has had problems with blogs being “flagged for review.” Just look at the threads in their support forums where blogs aren’t being updated properly.
And submitting a support ticket gets no response. Technorati doesn’t seem to care about their users. It really is a sad excuse for a user-oriented service.
Stats speak
I think Legal Andrew is a decent example of a mid-tier blog. So my stats can illustrate what we’re getting back from Technorati.
This is a graph of referrals to Legal Andrew from August 1, 2006 to June 3, 2007. As you can see from the last line (red arrow), Technorati refers less than 1% of my traffic!
Honestly, I can’t see why us bloggers care about Technorati at all. Maybe you guys see more value in it, but I really don’t.
Friends are great!
To end on a positive note, I want to point out the great importance of making real connections in the blogosphere: friends.
As you can see from this chart, my top 14 referrers include several friends, which amount to 4.5% of total referrals. After going through my top 50 referrers, I found that 7% of my traffic comes from friends.
Should I spend time screwing around with Technorati, or should I try to make another friend?
[tags]technorati, friends, google analytics, statistics[/tags]
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Month in Review – May
It’s been a big month in my personal life, and I hope the blog has kept up with your expectations. By the way, I’m now “Andrew Flusche, J.D.” 🙂
Traffic for May was right on target with April – about 8200 visits each month. I’m pretty darn happy with that, but I hope to see more growth in June. Too bad I have to study for the bar exam!
Popular posts
1. May’s top post was my contribution to the ProBlogger group writing project: Top 5 Reasons to Hate GTD. I’m glad you guys liked that one.
2. I’ve started writing a few posts on sleep, and this one was well-received: Sleep Hack – Plan a Full, Active Morning. I’m taking over Google’s results for “sleep hack.” Here’s a couple other posts you might enjoy:
25 Best Sleep Hacks
Sleep Hack – Change Your Language
3. I contributed to the Instigator Blog’s Ultimate Guide to Productivity, and my post on GTD nirvana comes in third for May.
Subscribe for easy reading
To make sure you don’t miss a post, there are several easy ways to subscribe to Legal Andrew:
Contact me
If you need anything or just want to chat, feel free to contact me. You can post a comment to any post here on the blog, or you can drop me a line. Also, feel free to IM me. The About page shows which networks I’m on.
[tags]month in review, gtd, sleep hack, problogger, instigator blog[/tags]
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I’ll Show My Workspace – Will You Show Yours?
Brandon Hopkins just posted a spiffy video tour of his workspace. You’ll get to find out neat things about him, like his taste for raisinettes and his cool desk-cat.
He did this through a project started by Josh Dorkin – What Does Your Office or Workspace Look Like?. The idea is that we all have a workspace, so we can bond together by seeing where our friends work. Cool, right? Plus, if you tell Josh about your post, he’ll add you to the running list he’s building (free link!).
Without further ado, my workspace is here for all to see!
It’s actually made from elfa shelving. The brackets attach to the wall, then you put in the shelves (built by yours truly). This ensures my desk is high enough for my long stick legs.
Yep, that’s a season of Stargate SG-1 on the desk. Teal’c is the man!!
What’s in your wallet workspace?
Update – June 1, 12:15 pm – David Pitlyuk is also keeping a running list of our workspaces. Thanks for the link, David!
[tags]brandon hopkins, josh dorkin, workspace, stargate[/tags]
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Get an Offer from Your Summer Law Firm
It’s officially summer. That means thousands of hopeful law students are beginning summer internships with law firms. If you’re one of them, live it up. You’ll be courted, wined & dined, and taken to so many happy hours you can’t stand to look at alcohol. Heck, you might even gain 50 pounds, like I did. 🙂
But will you get an offer to join the law firm? I don’t know, but I do have some thoughts to share.
Don’t believe the firm – Even if everyone got offers last year and they have space for all of your class, don’t believe them. That’s not a binding contract, and they’re in business to make money. There’s still a standard to meet, or else you won’t be asked to return.
Ask questions – You shouldn’t blindly trust the firm, but you should still ask questions. What does “firm wide offer” really mean? How is the decision physically made? Who gets to vote? Be tactful and polite, but ask lots of questions.
Don’t be “that guy” – Every firm has stories of “that guy” who did this crazy thing, or “that girl” who did something stupid. You definitely have to stay above that standard. So don’t be crazy or stupid.
Firm-wide offers are nuts – Many firms give offers solely based upon each individual practice group. It’s pretty clear that you need to impress the real estate section to get an offer from them. But what if your firm does firm-wide offers? The best advice here is to ask your firm how it makes the offer decisions. Some firms have summer associates rank the sections they’d like to work in. The section members also rank the summer associates. If your rankings match, you’re likely to get an offer. But if your top section hated you, say good-bye!
Work long hours – Your firm will likely tell you that hours don’t matter during the summer. They’re lying. You need to get a good number of projects done, and you need to put in face time over the summer. They’ll see your billable hours, and they’ll know if you’re leaving everyday at 4:30. You’re expected to socialize, but you also have to work.
Drink – The best way to get an offer is to be the guy the attorneys want to hang out with. All the summer associates can do decent work. But are you fun to be around? Can you hold your beer / liquor / wine? You don’t have to get drunk, and you don’t have to drink, but you need to be sociable.
Talk sports – You need something to talk about during all these silly social functions. I mistakenly thought that meant to stay up on current events. Wrong! Read the sports section, watch SportsCenter (is that what’s called?), and keep tabs on ESPN.com. This is your ticket to being cool and part of the in-crowd.
Sell your soul – If you really want to ensure your offer, make a deal with the Devil. He’ll gladly pay you $150,000 per year, give you great benefits, and put a prestigious name on your resume. In return, you’ll just have to give him 2300 billable hours for the rest of your life.
Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit here, but then maybe not. I’m sure many Big Law associates will say they’ve got a great life. But I’m equally certain that many solos would say they’re glad they left The Firm.
Your life is up to you. I just call it like I see it.
[tags]law firm, summer associate[/tags]
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Get $720 and a FREE Wall Clock
Have you ever wanted free money? What about a free clock? How about $720 in free internet advertising? Jim Boykin has you covered.
He’s running a little promotion where you can win a whole bunch of cool stuff (including $720 in ads) just by linking to a page on his site. Yep, he’s great at link-building, that’s for sure.
Now you’re probably wondering what page you need to link to – this one.
The only thing I can’t tell you is what criteria Jim will use to decide who wins the grand prize. That’s because he hasn’t decided yet. So now I’ve got to figure out a way to make this post appeal to him, so I can win.
Actually, I’m going to stop right here. If I don’t try too hard, maybe you can win!
[tags]link building, jim boykin, we build pages[/tags]
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Sleep Hack – Change Your Language
We use language every day to communicate with each other. But we rarely stop and consider the impact of our words. How can language improve sleep? Let’s explore that together.
When do I have to get up?
How often do you say this phrase? Maybe you wonder when you need to get up. Either way, you’re exhibiting a certain attitude toward sleep.
Using words like “need” or “have to” or “must” implies that getting up is some horrid obligation we have to do. In fact, many of us actually feel that way in the morning.
But what if you altered your language slightly? When do I GET to get up? That may sound crazy, but it’s not. You’re embracing a different attitude about waking up.
I must get some sleep
Similarly, we use “duty” language about going to bed. Sometimes it’s tough to put down work and get some sleep, but it’s important to do so.
What if you looked at bed time in a positive light? I want to go to sleep. That’s another subtle shift, but it can also invoke a different state of mind.
Empower yourself
These are just two simple ways to change your sleep language. In doing so, you should be empowered. There’s no excuse to keep yourself at the mercy of the Sand Man.
Take control of your language. Take control of your sleep.
What do you think?
I’m curious what you guys think of this. Have I gone off the deep end? Does any of this resonate with you? Let’s share in the comments!
[tags]sleep, sleephack, lifehack[/tags]
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Looky Linkies – Resume Tips, Recipes Galore
Here are a couple links I wanted to share with all of you.
9 Reasons Your Resume Is Trash – I wrote this post over at Job Tuition, giving some quick and easy tips to improve your resume.
Simply Recipes – I’m embarrassed to say that I discovered this awesome blog today. It’s a top blog overall, but especially within the food and recipe niche. You can even subscribe to separate RSS feeds based on your diet (everything, low carb, vegetarian). Your Memorial Day cookout wouldn’t be complete without hamburgers, although I think I’m going to cook up some yummy pork chops.
I hope everyone is having a great weekend. And for you U.S. readers, be sure to drive safe and be responsible when imbibing alcohol.
[tags]resume, recipes, food[/tags]
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Write a General Lesson, from a Personal Perspective
How many newspaper columnists ramble on about their daily lives? Would you read that column, if it’s all the author wrote?
What about somebody who writes like this:
I went to the market today. I bought an apple. It’s hot outside.
Why would you read that? Perhaps if the author is well-known, or your family, or a friend. But otherwise, I hope you’ve got better things to do.
Personal is great
Writing from a personal perspective is definitely a great way to humanize your work. I am not advocating impersonal writing at all.
The point is that you’ve got to give readers something more.
Find a general lesson
The best way I’ve found to be personal and readable is to pull a general lesson out of personal encounters. If something crazy happened at the grocery store, tell me why I should care. What does it have to do with me?
Why do children like fables? They’re a fun little story. Why do parents like them? They teach a lesson.
Put something in it for everyone, and you can’t go wrong.
[tags]writing[/tags]
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About Andrew Flusche
Lawyer, bicyclist, husband.
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