Lunch breaks are not required in Missouri. Neither state law nor the federal Fair Labor Standards Act obligates an employer to give adult workers a meal period, a rest break, or any other time off during a shift.1Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Are Breaks or Lunch Periods Required? Whether you get one depends on your employer’s policy, your employment contract, or a union agreement. Federal rules do, however, control whether a break has to be paid once your employer decides to offer one, and a few specific groups of workers have break rights that general employees don’t.
No Break Law Covers Adult Workers in Missouri
The Missouri Department of Labor is direct about it: employers are not required to provide a break of any kind, including a lunch hour.2Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Wages, Hours and Dismissal Rights Breaks are left to the employer’s discretion, a written company policy, or a collective bargaining agreement.
Federal law takes the same position. The FLSA sets rules for minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping, but it does not require employers to offer breaks at all.3U.S. Department of Labor. Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act Because breaks are so common, workers often assume they have a legal right to one. They don’t. If your employee handbook promises breaks, that promise may be enforceable as a matter of contract, but no statute requires it.
When a Break Has to Be Paid
Once your employer offers breaks, federal regulations decide which ones go on the clock. The dividing line is the length of the break and whether you’re actually relieved from work.
Short Rest Breaks Are Paid
Rest periods of roughly 5 to 20 minutes are treated as working time and must be paid.4eCFR. 29 CFR 785.18 – Rest A 10-minute coffee break stays on the clock, and your employer cannot offset that time against other working hours.
Meal Periods Can Be Unpaid Only If You’re Truly Off Duty
A bona fide meal period of 30 minutes or longer generally does not count as working time and can be unpaid. The condition is that you have to be completely relieved from duty for the entire period.5eCFR. 29 CFR 785.19 – Meal That means no answering phones, no monitoring equipment, no staying at your workstation to handle whatever comes up.
An employee who eats at their desk while fielding calls or responding to messages is working, not on a break, and that time must be paid.6U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 22: Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) This is where most break disputes start. The timesheet shows a 30-minute unpaid lunch, but the employee was never actually free to stop.
Who Does Get Break Rights
A few narrow categories of workers have break protections that the general workforce doesn’t.
Minors in the Entertainment Industry
Missouri’s child labor law does not require breaks for youth workers in general. The exception is minors working in entertainment. A minor in that industry cannot be at the place of employment for more than five and a half hours without a meal break of at least 30 minutes and no longer than one hour.7Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes Section 294.022 The child also receives a 15-minute paid rest period after every two hours of continuous work.8Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Acceptable Work and Hours for Youth Rehearsals, choreography practice, and similar preparation count as work time toward these thresholds.
Nursing Employees Under the PUMP Act
Federal law requires employers to provide nursing employees with reasonable break time to express breast milk for up to one year after a child’s birth, along with a private space that is not a bathroom.9U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Protections to Pump at Work Employers with fewer than 50 employees may be exempt if they can show undue hardship.10U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 73: Break Time for Nursing Mothers Under the FLSA A pumping break short enough to fall in the 5-to-20-minute window should be paid; longer sessions where the employee is fully off duty don’t have to be.
Workers With Disabilities Under the ADA
Employees with a qualifying disability may be entitled to additional or modified breaks as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which applies to employers with 15 or more employees.11U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Small Employers and Reasonable Accommodation A condition that requires periodic rest, more frequent bathroom access, or time to take medication could justify a break schedule beyond what the employer normally offers. The employer isn’t required to grant the specific accommodation you ask for, but they must engage in an interactive process to find one that works, unless they can show undue hardship. If you need this, put the request in writing and include medical documentation of the limitation.
If You’re Being Docked for a Break You Didn’t Really Get
When your employer deducts pay for a meal break but keeps you on duty, you have a wage claim. Keep records of every shift where the break was interrupted or cut short: the date, the tasks you performed, and how long you actually worked. Those records are what a wage claim turns on.
You can file a wage complaint with the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.12Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. File a Wage Complaint You can also file directly with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, since the compensability rules come from federal law.