The California Meal Break Premium Rule is primarily used to implement legislation that dictates the maximum duration of time an employee can work without a meal break and the duration of the breaks employees are entitled to receive. The rule can guarantee that employees receive up to two meal breaks, depending on the amount of time they work. Typically, for shifts with durations less than 10 hours employees earn a premium if they work more than five hours without a full 30-minute meal break. The second guaranteed meal break is for shifts with durations greater than 10 hours, for which employees are paid a premium if they work more than 10 hours without a second, full 30-minute break.
Note: While this rule is available for customers who have already configured it, we recommend using either the California Meal Break Premium Contiguous Rule or the California Meal Break Premium Clock Entry Time Based Rule if you’re configuring meal break premium rules for the first time. Which rule you use depends how your organization calculates worked time that contributes to meal break thresholds.
Although the rule was created to help implement California’s meal break legislation, it’s designed to be flexible to cover other business needs. In general, it pays out a premium whenever an employee works a specified amount of time without taking a meal break of a specified duration.
The rule’s configuration controls how long employees must work to be guaranteed their first and second meal break. It defines what duration a meal must be to be eligible and the duration and number of premiums the rule pays out for employees that didn't receive appropriate meal breaks.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Minutes worked for the First Meal Penalty to be waived | Enter the number of minutes into a shift before which employees must take a meal break to satisfy the guarantee. For example, if employees must take a meal break before five hours into an eight hour shift, enter 300 in the field. Employees who don't receive a meal break before 300 minutes (five hours) are paid the meal penalty premium. |
| Minutes worked for the Second Meal Penalty to be waived |
Enter the number of minutes into a shift before which employees must take their second meal break. Employees who don't take their second meal break before the specified number of minutes into their shift receive a meal penalty premium. For example, if employees must take a second meal break before working 10 hours in a shift, enter 600 in this field. Employees who don’t get a second meal break before 600 minutes are paid the meal penalty premium. Employees who work shifts shorter than the specified duration aren’t guaranteed a second meal break. Enter 10 in this field and an employee who works an 8 hour shift wouldn't be guaranteed a second meal break. |
| Maximum penalty premium mins |
Enter the duration, in minutes, of premiums that the rule pays out for employees who didn’t receive enough meal breaks. Dayforce pays out a premium of the specified duration for each meal that is missed or shorter in duration than the number of minutes specified in the Minimum meal length mins field. |
| Minimum meal length mins | Enter the minimum duration of meal breaks an employee must receive during an eligible shift. Employees who don’t receive this duration of meal breaks are paid a premium by the rule. |
| Maximum number of penalties | Enter the number of penalties the rule pays out to employees who don’t receive the guaranteed meal breaks. |
| Rate type |
Select Multiplier to configure the rule to pay out premiums at a rate that is a multiple of their regular pay rate. To pay employees time and a half, you would select Multiplier and enter 1.5 in the Rate value field. Select Incremental to configure the rule to pay the employee a premium at the specified flat rate. To pay employees $3.50 an hour extra in premiums for working a night shift, you’d select Incremental and enter 3.50 in the Rate value. |
| Rate value | Enter the premium’s rate value. Whether this a multiplier of the employee’s regular pay rate, or a flat rate, depends on the Rate type value. |
| Pay code Penalty Pay category Penalty |
The pay code and pay category the rule assigns to the “penalty” premiums it pays out. |
| Pay code Eligible | Select the pay codes which mark eligible meal breaks. Pay details with one of the selected pay codes are considered eligible meal breaks by the rule and count towards the guaranteed meal break duration. Leave blank and the rule doesn’t consider pay codes when determining eligible meal breaks. |
| Pay code Ineligible | Select the pay codes which mark ineligible pay details. Ineligible pay details aren’t eligible meal breaks and don't count toward the guaranteed meal break duration. Leave blank and the rule doesn’t consider pay codes when determining ineligible pay details. |
| Pay categories Eligible | Select the pay categories which mark eligible meal breaks. Pay details with one of the selected pay categories are considered eligible meal breaks by the rule and count towards the guaranteed meal break duration. Leave blank and the rule doesn’t consider pay categories when determining eligible meal breaks. |
| Pay categories Ineligible | Select the pay categories which mark ineligible pay details. Ineligible pay details aren’t eligible meal breaks and don't count toward the guaranteed meal break duration. Leave blank and the rule doesn’t consider pay categories when determining ineligible pay details. |
| Pay codes Eligible that count as work | Select the pay codes which mark eligible work. Pay details with one of the selected pay codes are considered work and count towards the thresholds defined in the Minutes worked for the First Meal Penalty to be waived and Minutes worked for the Second Meal Penalty to be waived fields. Leave blank and the rule doesn’t consider pay codes when determining how many minutes employees have worked. |
| Pay codes Ineligible that do not count as work | Select the pay codes which mark ineligible pay details. Ineligible pay details don’t count toward the thresholds defined in the Minutes worked for the First Meal Penalty to be waived and Minutes worked for the Second Meal Penalty to be waived fields. Leave blank and the rule doesn’t consider pay codes when determining ineligible pay details. |
| Pay categories Eligible that count as work | Select the pay categories which mark eligible work. Pay details with one of the selected pay categories are considered work and count towards the thresholds defined in the Minutes worked for the First Meal Penalty to be waived and Minutes worked for the Second Meal Penalty to be waived fields. Leave blank and the rule doesn’t consider pay categories when determining eligible how many minutes employees have worked. |
| Pay categories Ineligible that do not count as work | Select the pay categories which mark ineligible pay details. Ineligible pay details don’t count towards the thresholds defined in the Minutes worked for the First Meal Penalty to be waived and Minutes worked for the Second Meal Penalty to be waived fields. Leave blank and the rule doesn’t consider pay categories when determining ineligible pay details. |
| On duty meal type scheduled | Select the type of on-duty meal breaks that are scheduled: Break, Meal, or Both. |
| On duty meal scheduled job includes | Select the jobs that are considered on-duty meal jobs when employees are scheduled to them. The rule only considers employees scheduled to work one of the selected jobs as working on-duty meals. |
| On duty meal scheduled job excludes | Select the jobs that aren’t considered on-duty meal jobs when employees are scheduled to them. Employees working these jobs are paid a meal premium for working through their meals or breaks. |
| Permanent meal waiver includes | Select the volunteer list that contains employees that have signed a permanent meal waiver, to agree to work through their meal breaks without being paid meal penalties. Permanent meal waivers aren’t tied to the jobs that employees are scheduled to work, and they can still earn a meal premium if they work beyond a specific threshold of contiguous worked time, defined in the settings below. |
| Enable contiguous work mode with gap threshold | Enter the number of minutes that employees can have off between back-to-back worked time, and still have the time count as a contiguous block of worked time. |
| Include meal break in contiguous time |
Select the checkbox to consider meals as contiguous time. For example, an employee works for 4 hours, has a 1 hour meal break, and then works another 5 hours. With this checkbox selected, the 1 hour meal break is counted as contiguous time, meaning that the employee has worked 10 contiguous hours. Clear the checkbox and meals aren’t counted as contiguous time. This checkbox is selected by default. Note: Meal breaks must be at least the duration specified in the Minimum meal length mins field to be included in the total eligible time when the rule calculates the amount of contiguous, eligible time. |
| Contiguous work minutes to disable permanent waiver | Enter the number of minutes that employees who have signed their permanent meal waiver must work contiguously in order to be eligible for meal premiums paid out by the rule. |
| On duty meal waiver includes | Select the volunteer list that contains employees that have signed an on duty meal waiver, to agree to work through their meal breaks without being paid meal penalties. |
| Take location, department, job and rate from shift |
Select the checkbox to take the employee’s location, department, job, and rate into consideration when calculating premiums and determining which department and location the pay is charged against. When you select this checkbox, the rate is taken from the Rate field in the employee’s work assignment in People in the Work > Work Assignments screen. For example, if the rule is configured to pay premiums at 1.5 times the employee’s regular pay rate, when this checkbox is selected, the rule multiplies the rate employees are paid for the shift that earned the premium by 1.5, not the employee’s base rate. If an employee’s base rate is $8 but they’re paid $10 an hour for the shift that earned the meal break premium, the rule pays out premiums with a pay rate of $15 (10 multiplied by 1.5). Any premiums the rule awards when this new functionality is enabled uses the location, job assignment, and rate values that are effective at the time when the rule’s threshold is exceeded and the employee earns a premium. For example, if employees earn a premium if they work five hours without a meal break, and an employee works three hours at their primary job, performs a job transfer and works another four hours at a secondary job, then the secondary job is effective at the time when the threshold of five hours is exceeded. As a result, the rule pays out the premium and records it against the employee’s secondary job (which was the job effective at the time the employee was awarded the premium). Clear this checkbox to pay premiums and charge pay based only on the defaults set for the employee, and not the location, department, job, or rate from that specific shift. |
| Meal taken anytime (non-contiguous mode) |
Select the checkbox to allow employees to take their required meal breaks at any time during their worked shift. For example, employees entitled to a meal break after working four hours. An employee works a seven-hour shift, but takes their meal break after working for five hours. With this checkbox selected, the employee doesn’t receive the meal break premium even though their break didn’t fall within the first four hours of their shift. Clear the checkbox to pay the meal break premium whenever an employee doesn’t take their meal break within the defined thresholds, even if they take a meal break later in their shift. Note: This functionality doesn’t apply if the Enable contiguous work mode with gap threshold setting is selected. |
| Award only if off duty at threshold |
Select the checkbox to configure Dayforce to ignore the On duty meal type scheduled setting and employees’ scheduled shifts, meals, and breaks, and to instead examine the jobs employees are working at the meal threshold times to determine whether to pay out meal break premiums. If the employee has one of the meal waivers from the existing On duty meal waiver includes setting assigned to their records (in People in the Work > Volunteer List screen) and is working an “on duty meal” job (a job selected in the existing On duty meal scheduled job includes setting) at the time of either the first or second meal penalty thresholds (as configured using the Minutes worked for the First Meal Penalty to be waived and Minutes worked for the Second Meal Penalty to be waived settings), then the rule doesn’t pay a meal break premium. If the employee isn’t working an on duty meal job, then the rule does pay the meal break premium. For example, with the first meal penalty threshold set to five hours, when an employee works an eight hour shift, the rule examines the job the employee is working at the five hour mark to determine if the employee should be paid a meal break penalty. If the employee hasn't taken a meal break and isn’t working an on duty meal job, then the rule pays out the meal break penalty. |
| Use raw clocked time for calculating Shift length | Select this checkbox to configure the rule to ignore the clock entry rounding settings of your time entry policy and use raw clock entry times when determining an employee’s shift length. |
| Use raw clocked time for calculating Meals and Breaks length | Select this checkbox to configure the rule to ignore the clock entry rounding settings of your time entry policy and use raw clock entry times when determining meal and break lengths. |
Example 1
Employees are entitled to a meal break during the first four hours of their shift, and another meal during the second four hours. Employees that forfeit or miss these meals are eligible to receive a flat rate $7.50 premium for one or both of the breaks.
Configure the California Meal Break Premium Rule to pay out a premium if employees work for more than four hours without receiving a break by entering 240 in the Minutes worked for the First Meal Penalty to be waived setting. Enter 480 as the value for the Minutes worked for the Second Meal Penalty to be waived setting.
The rule should pay out maximum penalty of one hour and ensure that employees receive at least 30 minutes of breaks during a shift, so enter 60 and 30 in these settings. The payments are made as $7.50 premiums under the “MBonus” pay code and “Regular” pay category.
Select all types of breaks in the Paycode Eligible drop-down list. In this example, both paid and unpaid breaks are counted towards the total, so select “Regular” and “Unpaid” in the Paycategories Eligible setting.
All types of work, including any overtime that employees might be entitled to, count towards the total worked minutes for the rule, so select all applicable pay categories from the Paycategories Eligible that count as work setting.
Results A
An employee works a 13 hour shift from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM and misses both meal breaks they’re entitled to. As a result, the rule runs and pays out two premiums for the missed breaks, for $7.50 each:
Results B
An employee works from 8:00 AM to 5:45 PM, with a half hour unpaid meal break. Because they worked for more than eight hours of paid time, the rule pays out a premium for the missed second break.
Results C
An employee works from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, but doesn’t take a meal break. On the employee’s timesheet, both the employee and the supervisor waive the meal break. As a result, the rule doesn’t pay out a premium for the missed meal break:
Note: If only the employee or only the supervisor waives the meal break, the rule still pays out the premium. Both the employee and the supervisor must waive a meal break to prevent the rule from paying the premium.
Example 2
Continuing the example above, employees that have signed a permanent meal waiver are entitled to a meal premium if they work for over nine contiguous hours without a meal break. Back-to-back shifts are considered contiguous if they're 60 minutes apart or less.
Configure the rule to pay out a premium to employees that have signed a permanent meal waiver if they work for more than 9 hours back-to-back, with 60 minutes or less between their shifts, by entering 540 in the Contiguous worked minutes to disable permanent waiver setting and 60 in the Enable contiguous work mode with gap threshold setting. Employees that have signed a permanent meal waiver are included in the “On Duty Meal” volunteer list, so select this from the Permanent meal waiver includes setting.
An employee works a 6 hour shift from 6:00 AM to 12:00 PM, without a meal break, and another shift from 12:30 PM to 5:00 PM. The gap between the shifts is less than 60 minutes and the combined total is more than 9 hours of contiguous work, so Dayforce pays out two premiums for the missed breaks, for $7.50 each.
Example 3
Similar to Example 1, employees are entitled to a meal break during the first four hours of their shift, and another meal during the second four hours. However, rather than a flat rate, employees who forfeit or miss these meals are eligible to receive time and a half for one or both of the breaks. The employee’s rate of pay differs depending on the job they work during a shift, so time and a half should be calculated based on their rate of pay for that shift, rather than their base rate of pay.
Configure the settings as described in Example 1 above, but to account for the difference in rate, set the Rate type setting to Multiplier and enter 1.5 in the Rate value field. To ensure that employees are paid time and a half at the rate of pay for the shift they worked rather than for their base rate, select the Take location, department, job and rate from shift checkbox.
An employee works an 8-hour shift without taking either of their meal breaks. The employee’s base rate is $15.50, but for this particular shift they worked a job with a pay rate of $16 per hour. Because the Take location, department, job and rate from shift checkbox was selected, the employee was paid time and a half for these skipped meal breaks based on the $16 per hour pay rate, which amounts to $24 per hour.
Alternatively, if the Take location, department, job and rate from shift checkbox wasn't selected, the employee would have been paid time and a half based on their base rate of $15.50 per hour, which amounts to $23.25 per hour.