Oregon Break Laws: Meals, Rest Periods & Penalties

Oregon break laws require most employers to give you a paid 10-minute rest break for roughly every four hours you work, plus an unpaid 30-minute meal period once your shift reaches six hours. These rules come from Oregon Administrative Rule 839-020-0050 and cover nearly all non-exempt workers, with extra protections for employees under 18 and for nursing parents.¹

Paid Rest Breaks You’re Entitled To

Every employer must give you at least 10 continuous minutes of paid rest for each four-hour segment of work, or the major portion of one. Anything over two hours counts as a major portion. You must be fully relieved of work duties during the break, and your pay cannot be docked for the time.¹

How many rest breaks you’re owed depends on shift length:

2 to 6 hours: one 10-minute rest break
6 to 10 hours: two 10-minute rest breaks
10 to 14 hours: three 10-minute rest breaks

Each break should fall as close to the middle of its four-hour segment as the work reasonably allows. Your employer cannot combine rest breaks with your meal period, add them to the start of your shift, or let you use them to leave early.¹

Meal Periods on Longer Shifts

If you work six hours or more, you’re entitled to a meal period of at least 30 minutes. The time is unpaid only if you’re completely relieved of every work duty for the full 30 minutes. If your employer asks you to do anything work-related during that period, even answering a phone, the whole meal period becomes paid time.¹

When the meal falls in your shift depends on how long you’re working:

Shifts of seven hours or less: meal starts after the second hour and ends before the fifth hour begins.
Shifts over seven hours: meal starts after the third hour and ends before the sixth hour begins.
Shifts of 14 hours or more: your employer must provide a second meal period.²

When You Can’t Step Away

Some jobs make a duty-free meal impossible. A sole security guard at a remote site or the only attendant at a facility can’t simply leave. In those situations, the employer must pay you for the full meal period while you remain on duty, and you must still have adequate time to eat.²

Employers can also substitute a paid meal period for the standard unpaid one if they can show that a full 30-minute duty-free break would impose an undue hardship on business operations. Even then, you must have enough time to eat, rest, and use the restroom, and you still get every rest break your shift requires.

Tipped Server Waivers

Tipped food and beverage servers who are at least 18 can voluntarily waive the meal period in writing. The waiver cannot be requested in the first seven days of employment, and the employer must keep the signed waiver for six months after the worker leaves. Even with a waiver, the employer must provide an uninterrupted meal for any shift longer than eight hours, and you must have a chance to eat on shifts of six hours or more.² Coercing a waiver is a separate violation with its own penalty.

Breaks for Expressing Milk

Oregon employers must provide reasonable unpaid break time for employees who need to express breast milk, and the right lasts until the child turns 18 months old.³ You’re encouraged to use scheduled paid breaks when feasible, but not required to. If pumping takes longer than a paid break, the extra time is unpaid; only the overlap with a paid break is compensated.⁴

The employer must also provide a private location near your work area that is not a restroom or toilet stall, shielded from view and free from intrusion.³ Businesses with 10 or fewer employees may claim an undue-hardship exemption, measured against the size and financial resources of the business.⁴

Stronger Rules for Workers Under 18

Minors get longer rest breaks than adult workers. Employees under 18 must receive at least 15 minutes of paid rest for each four-hour segment or major portion, compared to 10 minutes for adults. Meal rules are the same (30 minutes on shifts of six hours or more), but the on-duty meal exceptions that apply to adults do not apply to workers aged 14 and 15.⁵

Agricultural employers follow the same structure for minors: 15-minute paid rest breaks and a 30-minute meal on shifts of six hours or more, with no stacking onto the meal period or using breaks to shorten the shift.

Who Doesn’t Get These Breaks

Not every Oregon worker falls under these rules. The most common exemption applies to salaried employees who meet the federal criteria for executive, administrative, or professional roles. To qualify, you must earn at least $684 per week ($35,568 annually) on a salary basis and perform duties that satisfy the applicable job-duties test.⁶

Workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement may follow a different break schedule if the union contract spells out specific rest and meal provisions. Agriculture, timber processing, and certain manufacturing operations sometimes operate under separate frameworks as well. Sawmills, for example, may schedule breaks around mandatory machinery shutdowns. Employers in these industries still must provide adequate rest; the structure just looks different.

A Separate Path for Hospital Workers

Oregon created a dedicated enforcement route for hospital staff under ORS 653.258, which took effect June 1, 2025. Registered nurses providing direct care, along with professional, technical, and service staff at hospitals, can file break-related complaints through three channels:²

File with the Oregon Health Authority within 60 days. OHA reviews and forwards to BOLI; a confirmed violation means the hospital pays $200 per missed break directly to the employee.
File with BOLI within two years. BOLI can award lost wages for missed meals, penalty wages, and civil penalties against the hospital (civil penalties go to the state, not the worker).
File a civil lawsuit within two years, available if you weren’t paid for missed break time.

Hospital staff covered by a union contract that already includes a monetary remedy for missed breaks generally fall outside this framework.

What a Violation Can Cost Your Employer

The Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries can impose a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per violation when an employer willfully breaks the rest and meal rules. Coercing a worker into waiving a meal period carries up to $2,000 per violation, and each day the coercion continues counts as a separate offense.⁷

Civil penalties go to the state, not to you. Your own recovery runs through a different route. If your employer owes you unpaid wages because you worked through meals, you may be entitled to back pay and, in some cases, penalty wages. Under ORS 652.150, Oregon’s penalty wage provision can extend your regular wages for up to 30 days from the date payment was due when an employer willfully withholds compensation.⁸

How to File a Complaint

The primary way to address a break violation is through BOLI’s Complaint Resolution Center. You can start the process online at complaints.boli.oregon.gov.⁹ Filing is free. Be ready to provide the legal name of the business, the physical address of the worksite, and the specific dates you were denied breaks. Records of your scheduled hours and actual break times make the strongest submissions.

BOLI assigns an investigator who reviews the facts and may contact you for more documentation. Your employer is notified and given a chance to respond with its own records. The administrative process can take several months depending on caseload and complexity. Under federal law, the general deadline for recovering back pay through a wage claim is two years from the violation, or three years if the violation was willful.¹⁰

If Your Employer Retaliates

Oregon law makes it illegal for an employer to fire, demote, suspend, or otherwise punish you for asking about wages, filing a complaint, or taking part in a wage investigation.¹¹ The protection applies the moment you raise the issue, whether to a manager directly or formally through BOLI.

Federal law adds a second layer. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers cannot retaliate against any employee who files a complaint, cooperates with an investigation, or testifies in related proceedings, and most courts have extended that protection to internal complaints made directly to the employer. If retaliation happens, you can file with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division or pursue a private lawsuit. Remedies can include reinstatement, lost wages, and an equal amount in liquidated damages.¹²

1
Oregon Secretary of State. Oregon Administrative Rule 839-020-0050 – Meal and Rest Periods
2
Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. Meals and Breaks
3
Oregon Revised Statutes. Oregon Code 653.077 – Expressing Milk in Workplace Rules
4
Bureau of Labor and Industries. Breaks to Express Breast Milk
5
Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. Minor Workers
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemptions
7
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 653 – Section: 653.261 Minimum Employment Conditions
8
Oregon Revised Statutes. Oregon Code 652.150 – Penalty Wage for Failure to Pay Wages on Termination of Employment
9
Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. BOLI Complaints Filing
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Back Pay
11
Oregon Revised Statutes. Oregon Code 659A.355 – Discrimination Based on Wage Discussions
12
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 77A – Prohibiting Retaliation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act