The FLSA does not generally regulate whether organizations must provide their employees with paid or unpaid breaks.
Question:
The FLSA does not generally regulate whether organizations must provide their employees with paid or unpaid breaks. However, it does indicate when employees should be paid when breaks are offered by an employer. For purposes of compensation, there are two different kinds of breaks that can be offered, rest breaks and meal breaks.
When workers take rest breaks that are 20 minutes or shorter in length, this time is compensable under the FLSA. This is the case because shorter breaks are often given by companies to improve how work gets done. When the time is taken off from work for a meal break is shorter than 30 minutes, the time is compensable. Meal breaks can be shorter under certain situations, but it is up to the employer to show that these special conditions are legitimate. Another consideration is whether workers actually conduct business on their meal breaks. If individuals are asked to stay at the worksite during meal breaks, they may need to be paid even when the duration of the break is longer than 30 minutes. If employees are told to do work during their meal breaks, they likely need to be paid for their time off, which is not really “time off” anyway because they are really “on the clock.”
Given these issues, a number of investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor believe that any break periods that are shorter than 30 minutes in duration count as compensable time. This is why some companies may elect to adopt such a policy, even though the law stipulates slightly different requirements for rest and meal breaks. Doing so enables organizations to avoid troublesome investigations, or even worse, lawsuits by disgruntled employees.
HR professionals, and general managers make decisions about whether to pay employees for their rest and meal breaks. Consequently, consider the following questions:
How can organizations encourage line managers to be more careful about paying (or not paying) employees for their breaks? What policies could be developed to help facilitate the process?
Intermediate Accounting
ISBN: 978-0324300987
10th Edition
Authors: Loren A Nikolai, D. Bazley and Jefferson P. Jones