The component is not available at this moment. Please contact the site administrator.
No statute, regulation or Labor Commissioner opinion expressly mandates that meal breaks start no later than 4 hours and 59 minutes (“4:59 practice”) into an eight-hour shift. The 4:59 practice is based on a commonly recognized best strategy to avoid the strict liability of a meal break violation.
California law provides that employers “shall not employ an employee for a work period of more than five hours per day without providing the employee with a meal period of not less than 30 minutes.” (Labor Code Section 512(a)).
There are limited exceptions to these requirements, but an employer should presume that meal breaks must follow these strict requirements.
The importance of seconds in accurate timekeeping explains why employers are counseled to apply the 4:59 practice. For example, if the employee clocks in at 8:00:00 a.m. and clocks out for lunch at precisely 1:00:00 p.m., there is no violation.
However, if the punch out is at 1:00:01, the meal break has started one second into the sixth hour. This is a meal break violation. The importance of seconds is why the 4:59 practice is recommended. This avoids any issue regarding compliant meal break start times.
Read about Meal Breaks in the HR Library.