Break & Lunch Calculator

These are two different things and only one comes off your hours. A short rest break, usually 10 or 15 minutes, is paid time and stays in your total. A meal break of 30 minutes or more is normally unpaid and comes out.

Federal law is the surprise here: the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require breaks at all. What it does say is that if a short break is given it must be paid, and that a genuine meal period can be unpaid only if you are actually relieved of duty. Eating at your desk while covering the phone is working time.

That last point is where most underpayment happens. An automatic 30 minute deduction applied to someone who never left their post is a wage claim waiting to be made.

Breaks are set by state law, so the answer depends on where you work. A handful of states have well-established rules, and the rest leave it to the employer.

This is a summary for orientation, not legal advice, and rules do change. Check your own state labor department before you build a policy on it.

Subtract only the unpaid part. A shift from 09:00 to 17:30 with a 30 minute unpaid lunch and two paid 10 minute breaks is 8 hours of paid time, not 7 hours 40.

California adds a second meal break past 10 hours, so a 12-hour shift can carry two unpaid 30 minute periods. That is an hour off the total, and missing it is a common error on long shifts.

For the whole week rather than one shift, use the time card calculator. If overtime is also in play, the overtime calculator covers the state daily thresholds, which interact with long shifts more than people expect.