See how meal waiver rules in California affect your right to meal breaks, extra pay, and daily schedules. Protect yourself from invalid waivers, missed meal periods, and retaliation by knowing California labor rules and your legal options.
By Brad Nakase, Attorney
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Workers in California are normally entitled to lunch breaks for shifts longer than five hours, but if you accepted an anticipated meal waiver agreement when you were employed, you may not be eligible for one for shifts longer than five but shorter than six.
An agreement between an employer and a worker to forgo the worker’s entitlement to a lunch period in advance is known as a potential meal waiver. Certain employees who work over five hours a day have the right to a thirty-minute meal break according to California law. An employee may forego this meal period if their work schedule is six hours or shorter and they have mutually agreed with their employer.
The majority of workers who put in more than ten hours a day have the right to an additional meal break. It may be skipped only under some circumstances.
Meal break waivers are frequently tucked away in the pile of paperwork given during onboarding. Some employees are not aware that they have signed a meal waiver. Sometimes they sign a paper or tick a box without reading the content. They don’t realize that they were just assigned for six-hour shifts without any breaks for meals.
Employers may use projected meal break waivers, which allow you to agree ahead of time to forego meal breaks rather than signing a new meal waiver or consent in another way every time, according to a California appeals court. This does not, however, imply that all of these waivers are legitimate or that they bind you indefinitely.
There are various situations in which your meal waiver may be defective or invalid:
Generally, employees in California:
You might wish to think about the following if you think your employer is breaking California labor laws or incorrectly enforcing the meal waiver:
For each weekday that a timely lunch period is not given in accordance with the law, employers who breach California’s meal break regulations are required to pay impacted employees an extra hour of salary at the employee’s usual rate.
Many California employees are unaware of their right to a meal break. Sometimes, employees do not know that they have signed a meal waiver. Employees working five to six-hour shifts are usually eligible for meal breaks. The only exception is when you have willingly and deliberately renounced them. In this case, you still have the option to change your mind.
Meal waivers sound simple, but they aren’t. Your rights don’t vanish because a form was slipped into your new-hire packet. Read what you signed. Ask questions. Pause when something feels off. California law gives workers room to push back, and you should use it. A break is not a luxury; it’s part of the job. And if your employer forgets that, remind them, calmly, firmly, and with the law on your side.
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