Arizona Break Laws Brief Overview
It is unfortunate that many employees are uninformed regarding what breaks and rest periods they are entitled to under state and federal law. Every state requires regulated breaks for hourly employees under either state or federal law. Arizona requires regulated breaks and rest periods for hourly employees under state law. Employers in Arizona should therefore be aware of these break requirements, including how they are to be paid for under the law and which employees they apply to.
Breaks and rest periods:
Some Arizona employers want to ignore that they must provide "rest" and "meal" periods to their hourly employees. They don’t believe they need to provide employees with additional compensation if they skip or miss their breaks. They may also believe they can round up their employees’ break and rest periods and that it’s acceptable to eat into employees’ rest time as long as they get the time back at a later point in the workday. They are wrong.
Just like all other employers in Arizona and across the United States, you must know and comply with all state and federal employer obligations with regard to your employee break policies. Employers must be on notice that, like federal law, Arizona follows the general federal requirements for "rest" and "meal" break periods that are located in federal labor regulations and case law, but departs from them in certain respects, requiring notably longer paid rest periods than the federal law. That means that although the federal regulations are not binding on Arizona employers, they are good guidelines for interpreting what currently is required of Arizona employers. Additionally, under Arizona law, there is no rounding of employees’ time as a general rule (except under certain conditions), including for breaks, and therefore an employee’s time cannot be rounded up or down when calculating their paycheck for the time they receive for breaks.
The following are general requirements under Arizona state law for break and rest periods:
1. Meal Periods – The State of Arizona has no requirement of employers to provide employees with any "meal" periods , but when employers do, then the employees are entitled to 30 minutes of unpaid time as long as they are relieved of all work obligations during that time: Under the law, employees are not entitled to this rest time for the typical "lunch" period of one hour, but are entitled to the 30 minutes anyway, because it is the employer’s decision to provide those meal breaks.
2. Rest Periods – The state of Arizona requires employers to provide "rest" periods to all employees who work longer than 3.5 hours of work for the day, at the rate of 1 paid period for every 2 to 4 hours of work, for a total of up to 24 minutes per work day. The law requires employers to provide breaks of 10 minutes for every 4 hours of work (or less), "based on the total hours worked daily, without deduction from wage," which means paying employees for that time.
Rest periods must be permitted at common sense, mid-point intervals in the workday or as is otherwise agreed upon by the employer and the employee; additionally, they "are meant to allow the employee to rest, time to use the toilet, to get something to eat or drink, etc., but are not meant to be used as a substitute for lunch or dinner." Employers who provide rest periods must pay their employees for that time even if the employee is not adequately provided a break-this means that an employee is entitled to pay for a missed rest period even if they don’t request the break. It is also important for employers to note that if an employee misses their rest period so that they receive less than the required amount of paid time for the workday, the employer is required under Arizona state law to pay the employee for that lost rest period at the end of the workday, and cannot force the employee to return to work the next day to make up the time; however, the U.S. DOL has stated that employees can later waive a rest period so long as the waiver is done voluntarily.
In sum, employers in Arizona must be aware of the state’s break laws and ensure that they are in compliance with these laws, because they are strictly enforced and violations can occur with simple miscalculations and other errors.
Federal Law About Breaks
Before we dive into the issues applicable to Arizona’s break and meal period laws, your mind may go to the federal labor laws. This section will discuss the applicable labor laws from the federal side.
The Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") is a federal wage-hour law that governs, among other things, how employers should address breaks and rest periods. The FLSA does not require private sector employers to provide employees breaks or rest periods. And as an unfortunate consequence of that rule, many employers completely ignore the laws applicable to breaks, or apply them incorrectly. The general rule is that no formal breaks are required when a worker is on duty. For those federal labor laws that concern breaks for workers, please see 29 U.S.C. § 207.
As a reminder, federal law provides that "bona fide meal periods" of 30 minutes or more will not be considered as worktime. Thus, meal breaks (also known as lunch breaks) are not considered work time, and employers need not pay employees for their time during these breaks.
The implications of this are important, however, for employers who want to take advantage of this "exemption" to paying their employees for lunch. First, the employee must be completely relieved of all duties during that break. In other words, they cannot be expected to be standing at the ready for an emergency call, must be able to leave the work premises during this time, and cannot be required to perform any duties (even if they are security-related, or checking another employee’s work product).
Second, this meal break must be at least 30 minutes long. While it is permissible for an employer to have a 30-minute meal period, it is not advisable. With this rule, employers may try to take advantage of the "exemption" and require employees to take a meal break every day. Employers should avoid this temptation if at all possible. It is only enforceable if an employee is actually free of duties for that 30 minutes. Thus, if the employee’s duties do not permit them to be away from the premises every day for 30 minutes, the employer cannot rely on the "bona fide meal periods" exemption.
Notably, the FLSA does not exempt short breaks such as coffee breaks. These breaks are counted as time worked. 29 C.F.R. §§ 785.18-.19. For the purposes of this exception to the general rule, a "rest period" must be "short" (an unofficial rule of thumb is under 20 minutes) and it should be located at or near the employee’s work area.
Importantly, employers, too, must guard against taking advantage of the "bona fide meal periods" exception. Specifically, employers cannot encourage employees to forego their meal breaks, or end their rest breaks early. This would overcome the "bona fide" aspect of this exception. This rule applies to anyone, whether they get a meal in the cafeteria, wander off to a restaurant, or simply sit at their desk with a sandwich. The key concept here is that the employee must be completely relieved of their duties for 30 continuous minutes.
That being said, while meal breaks are not considered "work," there are times when they are. For example, an employee who has a 30-minute break every workday, but fails to take lunch for a total of 1 hour every week, must be paid for that hour of work.
Notably, employees are not entitled to overtime during meal periods or rest breaks whether or not the employee worked during that time, so no additional hours are added to their workweek. 29 C.F.R. §§ 785.18, 785.19.
Arizona Meal Breaks Explained
In Arizona, meal breaks are not governed by statute. The Arizona Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division does not regulate meal or rest periods and generally defers to the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"). The FLSA requires employers to provide breaks and meal periods only when they have chosen to do so. Federal law requires payment for all working time, but Congress has excluded certain periods of inactivity or other non-work time, from the definition of compensable work time for purposes of the FLSA. Meal periods are considered non-compensable "non-work" time. A meal period is a bona fide meal period when it: Both paid and unpaid meal times are common in the workplace. While federal law requires unpaid meal time to be at least 30 minutes, Arizona law allows for a shorter unpaid meal break. State law does not require an employer to provide a certain duration of time for rest or meal periods. If an employer elects to provide unpaid meal periods, regardless of the duration, these meal periods must meet the same basic requirements under the FLSA. In addition to the amount of time a meal period is offered, the employer must consider the formality required by the employer in providing the meal periods. For example, employees partially relieved of duties may remain working. When employees are completely relieved of duty, meal periods can be unpaid. Arizona courts construe FLSA interpretations as persuasive authority when applying Arizona law. It is very possible that even if an employer opts to provide an unpaid meal break of a duration less than 30 minutes, the "on the clock" time may still be compensable due to the general principles governing unpaid breaks.
Arizona Rest Periods Brief Overview
While most states do not legally require employers to provide breaks (aside from meal periods) to employees, many employers provide a reasonable period of paid rest at their discretion.
For example, assuming that an employee works a single shift of at least 3 ½ hours, the Arizona Department of Economic Security has stated the following about breaks: Rest Breaks: If the employee works more than 3½ continuous hours, he/she must be allowed a 15-minute paid rest break. The 15-minute rest break counts as time worked and should be paid.
It is important to note that even if an employer chooses to provide breaks or rest periods, there is no legal requirement that it compensate its employees for that time. In fact, about half the states in the country do not require employers to pay employees for the rest periods they may or may not be provided at the employer’s discretion.
Indeed, unlike the Federal law, Arizona law does not require an employer to pay employees when it voluntarily provides employees with rest periods. 29 U.S.C. 785.18; see also, Sam v. Western Pacific Packing, Inc., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8155 (E.D. Cal. Jan. 25, 2012).
"In consideration of the above, an employer is not required to count a rest break as time worked where the employer provides its employees with rest breaks as a matter of company policy (or rules); and the rest breaks are frequent and short-for example, a 15-minute paid break for every 2 hours worked-where no work is required during the paid rest break."
Like Arizona, other states with similar laws include California, Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, and Tennessee. And just like Arizona, these states, unlike most other states, have differing expectations and requirements depending on company policy or workplace practices.
Arizona Breaks for Certain Industries
There may be specific industry requirements regarding breaks and rest periods in Arizona that deviate from the general rules. For example, the Arizona Administrative Code dictates the following break and rest period requirements: "Healthcare Facilities Must Provide Meal and Rest Periods: The Rules Regarding Meals And Rest Periods All Health Care Facilities Shall Provide One Paid Meal, As Defined In A.R.S. § 23-363, To Each Employee After A Period Of Work Of No More Than Hurry After A Period Of Work Of At Least Four Consecutive Hours. The Facilities Shall Also Provide Two Paid Rest Periods Of Fifteen Minutes Each For Each Employees For Every Four Hours Or Major Fraction Thereof Worked. This Subsection Is Not Intended To Require A Health Care Facility To Provide An Additional Meal Period For A Portion Of The Fourth Hour. "Responding To Emergency Situations In Healthcare: The Rules Regarding Meals And Rest Periods Are Not Intended To Require An Employer To Relieve An Employee From Its Duties For The Purpose Of Eating A Meal Where It Is Impossible Or Unreasonable To do so . An example is when it is impossible to relieve a health care employee from duty if an emergency arises and the health care employee is needed to attend to the emergency. The employer may require the health care employee to remain on the premises where the employee is on an unpaid break during such emergencies, and the employer must compensate the health care employee for all time spent performing duties for the employer during the emergency. The health care employee should be relieved of such duties when the emergency no longer exists. The employer should provide for the flexibility inherent in the needs of patient care during an emergency. "The Rules Regarding Meals And Rest Periods Do Not Apply To: Retail Employees, Motor Carrier Employees And Operators Of Motor Vehicles." Licensed pharmacists are required by Arizona Administrative Code, R9-10-701, to provide breaks to libel and unencumbered by excessive work demands that prevent a pharmacist from taking his or her meal period.
Arizona Statutory Penalties
Failure to comply with business regulations often leads to specific penalties intended to not only force compliance but also ensure fairness for employees. In accordance with Arizona labor law, employers that do not implement the required breaks and rest periods for employees face a number of enforceable, possible consequences, including but not limited to:
As an example of how such penalties might be enforced, the U.S. Department of Labor conducted a survey of employers, beginning in January 2019. In a relatively short period, one-third of respondents that were randomly selected to receive a compliance survey were found to have violations related to the topics contained in the survey. The department imposed the penalties on over 1,500 employers in just a little over two years, amounting to over $2 million.
However, it is not just the Department of Labor that examines break and rest period compliance. There have been numerous cases throughout the past few years in which employees initiated legal action against their employers for the failure to provide them with paid rest periods, such as those set forth above. A 2011 lawsuit against Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., claimed that the popular fast-food chain had no system in place for allowing employees to take required breaks and rest periods. The case ended with a settlement of just over $2 million.
A 2016 case against Starbucks Corporation is another example of litigation that targeted the company’s policies on breaks and rest periods. Notably, that case, filed by two plaintiffs, sought class action certification and alleged that Starbucks used a payroll software system to automatically deduct rest periods from employee time when it detected that they may have happened — even if the employees had not taken the time.
The employee portion of the Arizona Department of Economic Security website provides information that addresses what to do if an employee believes their employer fails to follow the regulations set forth above. The specific complaint guidance reads, "Your employer must provide you a safe and healthy work environment, as well as allow you to take lunch and rest breaks. But, some employers violate labor laws. If you are not allowed to take a break at work or your employer takes deductions from your check," you can file a complaint with the Industrial Commission of Arizona or the Department of Labor.
The Rights of Employees and the Responsibilities of Employers
Employees in Arizona are entitled to mandatory breaks and rest periods under federal law and have additional rights under state law. Federal law requires employers to provide breaks if the employer needs the employee to remain on duty during the break. If an employer does require employees to remain on duty, then employees must be compensated for time spent on break as part of their required wages.
Arizona labor laws further advance the rights of employees with regards to breaks. Arizona law requires that employees be provided one paid 15-minute break for every four hours of work. If an employee works for three or more hours, employers must allow a second paid 15-minute break. For every two hours of work an employee performs in excess of eight hours in any given workday, employers must provide one paid 15-minute break .
Importantly, neither the Arizona nor federal labor laws require employers to offer lunch breaks to employees. Even though many employers do provide lunch time to their employees, there are no requirements associated with this break time.
If employers violate a break law in a significant way, the actions may be construed by the Arizona Department of Economic Security as a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). If you believe that an employer has violated federal or state labor law, there are several avenues for reporting violations to the appropriate government agency. First, if you prefer not to report the violation at work, you can file an anonymous report directly with the US Department of Labor. You can also report a violation of Arizona labor laws to the Labor Department, Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.