Texas Lunch Law
Posted by Tamara
Many employees are surprised to learn that there is no Texas lunch law. Nor is there any federal law that an employer must provide meal breaks for employees in general industry.
It is completely lawful for a Texas employer to require employees to work for 8, 10 or even 16 hours per day without a meal break. It is not a recommended Human Resources practice, but there is no law against it.
The best practice in HR is for employers to give workers a 30-minute unpaid meal break, and one or two paid 10- to 15-minute rest breaks, on an 8 hour shift. These breaks have been shown to improve productivity. That is, employees who take regular breaks actually accomplish more during the workday than other employees. This is true, even when the paid rest breaks are counted as work time. However, there is no Texas lunch law that requires employers to grant such breaks.
Federal agencies like the US. Department of Transportation require meal breaks for workers in some occupations, such as airline pilots or interstate truck drivers. However, these breaks are more a matter of public safety than employee rights.
OSHA federal worker safety regulations require that employees be permitted to use the restroom when nature calls, but they do not require any rest or meal breaks.
Nineteen U.S. states from California to Maine have laws that require meal breaks for almost every employee – but Texas does not. States with meal break laws include Illinois, Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia.
While there is no Texas lunch break law, an employer can require that any Texas worker take a meal break. Any employer can establish a mandatory meal break policy and require employees to clock out for a 30 or 60 minute meal break on every shift. This is a very common way for Texas employers to save payroll dollars. Any employee who does not comply with this policy can be disciplined or terminated.
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