Definition: Federal law (state laws may vary) does not require lunch or coffee breaks for employees, though many companies do provide breaks.
Lunch, dinner, or other meal periods (typically lasting at least 30 minutes) are not work time and employees are not entitled to be paid for their meal break.
However, when employers provide short breaks from work (usually lasting about 5 to 20 minutes), federal law considers the breaks as work hours you should be paid for. This time should be included in the sum of your hours worked during the work week and considered in determining if overtime was worked.
Examples:
Janet was paid for her 15 minute break each morning, however her lunch hour was not paid.
