Are 15-Minute Breaks Required by Law in Virginia?

No, 15-minute breaks are not required by law in Virginia for adult employees. No state statute makes employers give meal breaks, rest breaks, or any other time off during a shift to workers 18 and older, and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act doesn’t require breaks either. What the law does regulate is how breaks must be paid when an employer chooses to offer them, plus a handful of situations, such as young workers, nursing mothers, and certain accommodations, where breaks are required.

What Virginia and Federal Law Actually Say

Virginia has no statute requiring employers to provide meal periods, rest periods, or short breaks to adult workers. Whether you get a 15-minute break, an hour for lunch, or nothing at all is entirely up to your employer’s policy or any union agreement in place. Federal law takes the same approach. The FLSA does not require meal or rest periods.¹

So if your Virginia employer offers no breaks during your shift, that alone isn’t a legal violation. The real legal questions usually come up around how breaks are paid, not whether they’re offered.

If Your Employer Offers a 15-Minute Break, It Has to Be Paid

Federal regulations treat short rest periods of 5 to 20 minutes as compensable work time. Your employer must count that time as hours worked and pay you for it.² A standard 15-minute break sits right in that range. It cannot be deducted from your pay or clocked out.

Those minutes also count toward your weekly total for overtime. If you put in 38 hours of active work plus two and a half hours of paid 15-minute breaks, your total is 40.5 hours, and the half hour above 40 triggers overtime.¹

When a Meal Period Can Be Unpaid

Longer breaks work differently. A meal period of 30 minutes or more does not have to be paid, but only if you are completely relieved of all duties during that time.³

“Completely free” is interpreted strictly. If you eat at your desk and answer phones, monitor equipment, or handle even occasional tasks, the whole meal period is work time and must be paid.⁴ Your employer can require you to stay on the premises, but not to keep working. This is where most unpaid-lunch disputes come from: it’s called a break, but you’re still expected to respond.

What Happens If You Go Over Your Break

An employer can refuse to pay for a break extension the employee took without permission, but only if three things were made clear in advance: the break lasts a set amount of time, going over is against the rules, and doing so will result in discipline.¹ Without those conditions documented and communicated, the extra minutes are still compensable.

Breaks That Are Required

Workers Under 16

Virginia law does mandate breaks for minors. No minor may work more than five consecutive hours without a meal break of at least 30 minutes.⁵ Anything shorter than 30 minutes doesn’t count as breaking the run of continuous work, so an employer can’t substitute two 15-minute breaks. These rules apply to 14- and 15-year-olds, along with limits on daily and weekly hours and restrictions on late-night and school-hour shifts.⁶

Nursing Mothers

The PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, effective in late 2022, requires most employers to give reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for up to one year after a child’s birth. The employer must also provide a private space that is not a bathroom, is shielded from view, and is free from intrusion.⁷ These breaks don’t have to be paid unless the employer already provides paid breaks of similar length, in which case pumping time is paid the same way.⁸ Employers with fewer than 50 employees can claim an undue hardship exemption.

Disability, Religious, and Pregnancy Accommodations

Federal civil rights laws can require breaks in specific situations even though Virginia’s general rule doesn’t. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, additional or extended breaks are a recognized form of reasonable accommodation. The EEOC uses the example of an employee whose medication causes severe nausea and needs a daily 45-minute break; the employer must grant that unless it causes significant difficulty or expense.⁹

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act covers religious practices. Short breaks for prayer during the workday must be accommodated as long as it doesn’t impose more than a minimal cost on the employer, which often means rearranging existing break schedules rather than adding time.¹⁰

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, enforced since June 2024, requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy-related limitations. Extra breaks to drink water, eat, or use the restroom are on the EEOC’s list of examples.¹¹

If You Aren’t Being Paid for Break Time

The most common problem isn’t the absence of breaks; it’s an employer that gives you a 15-minute break and docks it, or requires you to keep working through an unpaid lunch. Both are wage violations.

You can file a federal complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division online or by calling 1-866-487-9243. The complaint is routed to the nearest field office, and an investigator will contact you within two business days.¹² Virginia’s Department of Labor and Industry also handles unpaid wage claims through its Payment of Wage Unit, either electronically or by mailed paper form.¹³

You generally have two years to file a back-pay claim under federal law, or three years if the violation was willful.¹⁴ A successful claim typically recovers the unpaid wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, along with attorney’s fees.¹⁵

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Breaks and Meal Periods
2
eCFR. 29 CFR 785.18 – Rest
3
eCFR. 29 CFR 785.19 – Meal
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #22: Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
5
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code Title 40.1 – Section 40.1-80.1 Employment of Children
6
Virginia Department of Labor and Industry. Youth Employment
7
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Protections to Pump at Work
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #73: FLSA Protections for Employees to Pump Breast Milk at Work
9
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship Under the ADA
10
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Section 12: Religious Discrimination
11
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA)
12
Worker.gov. Filing a Complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
13
Virginia Department of Labor and Industry. Payment of Wage
14
U.S. Department of Labor. Back Pay
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 216 – Penalties