# California — Meal and rest break requirements by US state — hours worked before a break is owed, its length, and whether it's paid, quoted from the state's own labor law

For California, meal break rule is An employer shall not employ an employee for a work period of more than five hours per day without providing the employee with a meal period of not less than 30 minutes; rest break rule is must authorize and permit a net 10-minute paid rest period for every four hours worked or major fraction thereof; statute or regulation is Cal. Labor Code § 512 (meal); Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders, per DLSE (rest), recorded from its source on 2026-09-02.

- **State:** California _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_
- **Meal break rule:** An employer shall not employ an employee for a work period of more than five hours per day without providing the employee with a meal period of not less than 30 minutes _(verified: appears in its own passage below)_
- **Rest break rule:** must authorize and permit a net 10-minute paid rest period for every four hours worked or major fraction thereof _(verified: appears in its own passage below)_
- **Statute or regulation:** Cal. Labor Code § 512 (meal); Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders, per DLSE (rest) _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_

## What the source says

> An employer shall not employ an employee for a work period of more than five hours per day without providing the employee with a meal period of not less than 30 minutes, except that if the total work period per day of the employee is no more than six hours, the meal period may be waived by mutual consent of both the employer and employee.

## Where each value comes from

This source states these in separate places, so each value is shown with the passage that states it.

### Meal break rule

> An employer shall not employ an employee for a work period of more than five hours per day without providing the employee with a meal period of not less than 30 minutes, except that if the total work period per day of the employee is no more than six hours, the meal period may be waived by mutual consent of both the employer and employee. An employer shall not employ an employee for a work period of more than 10 hours per day without providing the employee with a second meal period of not less than 30 minutes, except that if the total hours worked is no more than 12 hours, the second meal period may be waived by mutual consent of the employer and the employee only if the first meal period was not waived.

### Rest break rule

> Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders must authorize and permit a net 10-minute paid rest period for every four hours worked or major fraction thereof. Insofar as is practicable, the rest period should be in the middle of the work period.

### Statute or regulation

> California Code, LAB 512.

## Source

- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB&sectionNum=512.
- https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_restperiods.htm

Last verified: 2026-09-02. Review by: 2027-09-02.
Part of [Meal and rest break requirements by US state — hours worked before a break is owed, its length, and whether it's paid, quoted from the state's own labor law](https://referencesource.org/meal-and-rest-break-requirements-by-state/).