This page contains the following information:

• Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for Ambulance Companies
• Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for Construction, Drilling, Logging and Mining
• Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for Residential Care
• Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for Health Care
• Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for Motion Pictures
• Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for the Broadcast Industry
• Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for the Wholesale Baking Industry
• Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for Truck Drivers Subject to Federal Law
• Meal Break Exemptions Under Collective Bargaining Agreements
• Meal Break Exception for Truck Drivers Transporting Commercial Feed
• Rest Break Exceptions
• Meal and Rest Break Best Practices

Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for Ambulance Companies

Ambulance drivers and attendants are covered under Wage Order 9 - Transportation and generally are subject to the same meal and rest break requirements as employees in other industries. For more information, see “Wage Order 9 - Transportation Industry” in Wage Order Listings.

The Emergency Ambulance Employee Safety and Preparedness Act requires that emergency ambulance providers (defined as an employer that provides ambulance services, except the state or a political subdivision thereof) pay certain employees during meal and rest breaks.1 This requirement applies only to “emergency ambulance employees,” which are defined as emergency medical technicians (EMTs), dispatchers, paramedics, or other licensed or certified ambulance transport personnel who contribute to the delivery of ambulance services and who are employed by an emergency ambulance provider. These employees must be paid during meal and rest breaks at their “regular hourly rate of pay.”

Emergency ambulance providers can require that emergency ambulance employees remain reachable by portable communication devices throughout the entirety of their shifts - including meal and rest breaks. However, if an emergency ambulance employee is “contacted” during a meal or rest break, that break cannot be counted towards the breaks the employee is entitled to receive during their work shift. Being contacted is defined as receiving a message or directive over a portable communications device which requires a response.

Emergency ambulance providers must manage staffing at sufficient levels to provide enough inactivity in a shift for employees to take their meal and rest breaks. In addition, emergency ambulance providers can't require an employee to take a meal break during the first or last hour of a work shift and must allow employees to space multiple meal breaks in a work shift at least two hours apart.

If employers fail to meet these requirements, or if the employee is "contacted" as defined above during a meal or rest break, then the break is not counted toward the breaks the employee is entitled to during the work shift. While the law is silent on whether this requires the employer to pay meal and rest break premium pay, there is nothing suggesting that the premium pay would not be owed. For more information about meal and rest break premium pay, see Premium Pay for Meal and/or Rest Break Violation.

The Act also includes training, mental health, and health care requirements for emergency ambulance employees. More information on these requirements can be found in “Requirements for Ambulance Companies” in Wage and Hour Requirements for Specific Industries.

Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for Construction, Drilling, Logging and Mining

Wage Order 16 (On-Site Construction, Drilling, Logging and Mining) provides more rest break flexibility than is available under the other Wage Orders.

Wage Order 16 covers employees in the on-site occupations of construction, drilling, logging and mining. Employees in these industries who are not on-site employees, such as clerical employees, generally work under Wage Order 4 (Professional, Technical, Clerical, Mechanical and Similar Occupations) and do not fall under the exceptions discussed here.

For employees working under Wage Order 16, you can:

• Stagger rest breaks to avoid interruption in the flow of work and to maintain continuous operations.
• Schedule rest breaks to coincide with breaks in the flow of work that occur in the course of the workday.
• Require employees to take their rest breaks in the employees’ immediate work area.2
• When two rest breaks are required in a workday, combine the second rest break with the meal break if the first rest break was provided within the first four hours of work.3

Under Wage Order 16, you need not provide rest breaks in limited circumstances when the disruption of continuous operations would jeopardize the work’s product or process. However, you must make up the missed rest break within the same workday or compensate the employee for the missed 10 minutes of rest time at the regular rate of pay.

A provision in Wage Order 16 exempts employees working under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement from meal break requirements. However, that provision was found invalid.

Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for Residential Care

Wage Order 5 (Public Housekeeping) contains an exemption from rest break4 and meal break5 requirements for certain residential care employees. These exemptions apply to:

• Employees of 24-hour residential care facilities for the elderly, blind or developmentally disabled individuals; and
• Employees with direct responsibility for children receiving 24-hour residential care, when those children are less than 18 years of age or not emancipated from the foster care system.

You can require these residential care employees to remain on the premises and maintain general supervision of residents during rest breaks if they are in sole charge of residents. You must allow another rest break if an employee is required to interrupt a break to respond to the residents’ needs.

Similarly, you can require these residential care employees to work on-duty meal periods if necessary to meet regulatory or approved program standards and if one of the following two conditions are met:

• The residential care employees eat with residents during residents’ meals and you provide the same meal at no charge to the employee; or
• The employee is in sole charge of the resident(s) and, on the day shift, you provide a meal at no charge to the employee.

Employees who work the day shift can have an off-duty meal period if they give you 30 days’ notice for each instance in which they desire an off-duty meal. However, there can be no more than one off-duty meal period every two weeks.

Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for Health Care

Employees in the health care industry who work shifts in excess of eight hours total in a workday can voluntarily waive their right to one of their two meal breaks, even when the shift is more than 12 hours.

To be valid, the waiver must be documented in a written agreement voluntarily signed by both you and your employee. The employee can revoke the waiver at any time by providing you with at least one day’s written notice. The employee must be fully compensated for all working time, including an on-the-job meal break, while the waiver is in effect.6

Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for Motion Pictures

Under Wage Order 12 (Motion Picture Industry), employees in the motion picture industry cannot work more than six hours without a meal break of no fewer than 30 minutes nor more than one hour. You must call subsequent meal breaks for all employees not later than six hours after the end of the earlier meal break.7

If an employee in the motion picture industry is covered by a collective bargaining agreement that provides for meal breaks and a monetary remedy if a required meal break is missed, the agreement’s provisions supersede the meal break penalty provisions in the Labor Code and Wage Order 12.

When employees must eat on the premises, you must designate a suitable place for that purpose.

Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for the Broadcast Industry

Under Wage Order 11 (Broadcasting Industry), if employees in the broadcasting industry are covered by a collective bargaining agreement that provides for meal breaks and a monetary remedy if a required meal break is missed, the agreement's provisions supersede the meal period penalty provisions in the Labor Code and Wage Order 11.8

When employees must eat on the premises, you must designate a suitable place for that purpose.

Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for the Wholesale Baking Industry

A wholesale baking organization is exempt from the meal break requirements if it has a collective bargaining agreement that provides for a 35-hour workweek consisting of five seven-hour days, payment of 1.5 times the regular rate of pay for hours worked in excess of seven hours per day, and a rest break of not less than 10 minutes every two hours.9

Meal and Rest Break Exceptions for Truck Drivers Subject to Federal Law

Certain types of truck drivers working in California may be subject to federal laws that preempt California’s meal and rest break requirements. For example, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has determined that the Federal Hazardous Material Transportation Law and the Hazardous Materials Regulations preempt California meal and rest break laws for all hazardous materials motor vehicle drivers. In addition, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) determined that federal law preempts California’s meal and rest break rules as they apply to property-carrying commercial motor vehicle drivers covered by federal hours of service regulations. California challenged the FMCSA’s order, but the Ninth Circuit upheld the FMCSA’s determination.10

• In 2020, the FMCSA issued a similar order, concluding that California’s meal and rest break rules were preempted by federal law with respect to passenger-carrying drivers. On June 4, 2026, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied California’s petition to review the FMCSA order and upheld its determination.11

A California Court of Appeal held that the FMCSA’s determination that California’s meal and rest break rules were preempted by federal hours of service regulations applied to short haul drivers, even though short haul drivers were exempted from one of the federal regulations.12

• Employers with drivers subject to federal law should consult legal counsel about the extent to which federal law may preempt California’s meal and rest break requirements.

Meal Break Exception for Truck Drivers Transporting Commercial Feed

An extremely limited meal period exception applies to certain commercial drivers who are transporting commercial feed to customers in remote, rural areas. These drivers may begin their meal period after six hours of work if they are paid at least one and one-half times the state minimum wage and are paid overtime compensation when required by law. This law does not create an exception to the requirement to provide these employees with a second meal period before the end of the 10th hour of work.13

Meal Break Exemptions Under Collective Bargaining Agreements

The Labor Code and certain Wage Orders provide exceptions to meal break requirements for employees in certain industries that are covered by collective bargaining agreements (CBA).

Labor Code section 512(e) - (g) provides additional exceptions for employees in the following industries:

• Construction employees;
• Commercial drivers;
• Security services (a person providing security services must be a registered security officer in accordance with the Business and Professions Code and be employed by a private patrol operator); and
• An electrical corporation, a gas corporation, a water corporation, or a local, publicly owned electric utility.

The employees listed above can be exempt from the meal requirement in Labor Code section 512(a) if:

• The employees are covered by a valid CBA; and
• The CBA provides for the wages, hours of work, and working conditions of the employees, and expressly provides for meal periods, final and binding arbitration of disputes about the meal period provisions, premium wage rates for overtime, and a regular hourly rate of pay not less than 30 percent more than the state minimum wage.

The California Supreme Court has held that an employee covered by Wage Order 16 and a valid CBA that satisfies the exception described above must still be paid for their meal break time when the employer maintains control over the employee during the meal period.14

In this case, the employees weren’t allowed to leave the employer’s premises during meal periods. The employer argued that the employees were exempt from the meal break rules under the CBA exemption and, as such, the employer wasn’t required to pay employees for that time. The court was unpersuaded because this would be the same as an employee bargaining away the right to a minimum wage for “hours worked,” which is unlawful. Instead, the court held that what the employee and employer bargained for with a valid CBA is a voluntary on-duty meal period, even if the nature of the work would otherwise not permit an on-duty meal period under the law. What an employee may not bargain for is a situation where an employee receives no pay for “hours worked.”

Labor Code section 512.2 provides an exception to the meal break requirement for airline cabin crew employees if:

• The employee is covered by a valid CBA under the Railway Labor Act and the CBA contains any provision addressing meal and rest periods for airline cabin crew employees; or
• The employee is part of a craft or class of employees that is represented by a labor organization pursuant to the Railway Labor Act but is not yet covered by a valid CBA. (This exception applies for the first 12 months that the craft or class of employees is represented and may apply for longer only if agreed upon in writing by the employer and the labor organization representing the craft of class of employees.)

Wage Order 1 (Manufacturing Industry) provides that the parties to a valid CBA can agree to a meal period that commences after no more than six hours of work.15

Rest Break Exceptions

There are some exceptions to the general rest break rules.

• Effective January 1, 2026, California revised a narrow exception for safety sensitive positions at petroleum facilities, expanding the exception to other fuel refineries and making the exception, which was set to expire at the end of 2025, permanent.

Employers in the petroleum and other fuel refining industries may require that employees holding safety-sensitive positions at covered refineries be on-call and carry instant communication devices during rest periods. If such an employee is required to interrupt their rest break for an emergency, they must be allowed to take another rest break within a reasonably prompt time; if circumstances don't allow the employee to take another rest break, then the employer must pay the employee a rest break premium (an additional hour of pay at the employee's regular rate of pay).

This exception applies only to employees covered under Wage Order 1 (Manufacturing) holding safety-sensitive positions at petroleum facilities and other refineries that produce fuel through processing alternative feedstock as described in Labor Code section 7853.

Additionally, this exception applies only if the employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that expressly provides for the wages, hours of work, and working conditions of employees, and expressly provides for rest periods for those employees, final and binding arbitration of disputes concerning application of its rest period provisions, premium wage rates for all overtime hours worked, and a regular hourly rate of pay of not less than 30 percent more than the state minimum wage rate. 16

Private security officers who are registered under the Private Security Services Act and are employed by a private patrol operator may be required to remain on the premises during rest periods and to remain on call and carry and monitor a communication device during rest periods. If work interrupts the rest period, the security officer must be permitted to restart the rest period as soon as practicable. The exception only applies if employees are covered by a CBA that expressly provides for the wages, hours of work, and working conditions of employees, and expressly provides for rest periods for those employees, final and binding arbitration of disputes concerning application of its rest period provisions, premium wage rates for all overtime hours worked, and a regular hourly rate of pay of not less than one dollar more than the state minimum wage rate. This exception is in effect until January 1, 2027.17

The Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) may create an exception to rest period rules for governmental employees who operate commercial motor vehicles, as defined in Vehicle Code section 15210, if they are covered by a valid CBA.18

There are also several industry-specific exceptions and modifications to the rest break requirements: employees in group homes, certain unionized employees and employees of construction, drilling, logging or mining operations may have slightly different rest period requirements.

There are also several industry-specific exceptions and modifications to the rest break requirements, including: employees in group homes19; public transit bus drivers [FN - IWC Wage Order 9, sec. 12]; crew members on overnight trips on commercial passenger fishing boats [FN - IWC Wage Order 10, sec.12]; certain performers engaged in strenuous physical activities [FN - IWC Wage Order 12, sec.12]; and employees of construction, drilling, logging or mining operations [FN - IWC Wage Order 16, sec. 11].

• Review the Wage Order that applies to your business to determine if any exceptions may apply and consult with an attorney if you have questions about which rules apply to specific industries.

1. Lab. Code sec. 880-890