Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

• The FLSA does not mandate that employers provide any breaks to employees. But the FLSA does state that the employer may voluntarily give rest breaks to employees, but if it does so it must pay the employees for the rest breaks. The FLSA also requires that if employers provide unpaid meal breaks they must be specific lengths of time uninterrupted by work (i.e., the employer can't just label short rest breaks as meal breaks to get out of the requirement of paying for rest breaks).
  
  

State Laws

• Twenty-five states currently have laws requiring employers to provide either meal breaks or rest breaks, but only seven states require employers to provide both. Some of these state laws only apply to businesses above a certain size. State laws also mandate other details like minimum length of rest and meal breaks and often exempt certain categories of businesses from the requirements.
  
  

Union Contracts

• Almost all union contracts (and consultant contracts) have provisions providing employees with rest and meal breaks, and it is fair to say the labor movement has been instrumental in defining fair breaks and the decades-long process of pressuring businesses and politicians into making them the norm for all workers.
  
  

2011 Norms

• As of 2011, almost all businesses in the United States that operate on a non-urgent basis offer rest and meal breaks to their employees, and even time-sensitive workplaces where it is logistically difficult to give employees breaks nearly all work out overlapping schedules or floating employees to make some kinds of breaks possible. Even though they are sometimes not legally required to, employers have learned that not giving employees breaks is a bad business practice on several levels.