The Washington 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. It allows administrators to specify when an employee’s first and second meals are required. Administrators can configure the rule to specify the minimum amount of time employees must work before the first meal must be taken and can use schedule information to determine the length a shift must be before the first meal is required. As well, administrators can specify that the second meal and subsequent penalties be paid when a period of more than a specified duration is worked without an adequate break.
Although the rule was created to help implement Washington’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. This rule is similar to the California Meal Break Premium Clock Entry Time Based Rule, but with additional settings for determining when a meal break is due.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Minutes worked more than scheduled for the Meal Penalty to be paid (>=) | Enter the number of minutes that need to be worked over the scheduled time in order for the penalty to be paid. |
| Meal must start after (>=) | The first meal must always start at or after this time into the shift, otherwise it’s considered an invalid early meal. |
| Minutes worked for the Meal Penalty to be paid (>=) | Enter the number of minutes that need to be worked before the first meal must start, regardless of shift length. This is also the number of minutes at which time an additional meal is required if the employee works more than this amount of time subsequent to each valid meal being taken. |
| Minimum meal length mins |
Enter the minimum duration for meal breaks. If either of an employee’s meal breaks is shorter than this duration, the rule pays out the premium. This value also determines the number of minutes awarded for the penalty. Note: This setting is analogous to the Meal Required Minutes field in time entry policies. Both should be configured with the same number. |
| Meal penalty rate type Meal penalty rate value |
Use these settings to configure how the meal penalty is paid, either as a multiplied rate or an incremental rate. For example, to award a premium that is paid at twice the employee’s pay rate, enter 2 in the Meal penalty rate value field, and select Multiplier in the Meal penalty rate type drop-down list. Similarly, to award a premium that is paid at $1 more than the employee’s pay rate, enter 1 in the Meal penalty rate value field, and select Incremental in the Meal penalty rate type drop-down list. |
| Meal penalty paycode | The pay code that Dayforce uses for meal penalty premiums. |
| Meal penalty paycategory | The pay category that Dayforce uses for meal penalty premiums. |
| Paycodes eligible as meal | The pay codes that 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. |
| Paycodes ineligible as meal | The pay codes that mark ineligible pay details. Ineligible pay details aren’t eligible meal breaks and don’t count toward the guaranteed meal break duration. |
| Paycategories eligible as meal | The pay categories that 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. |
| Paycategories ineligible as meal | The pay categories that mark ineligible pay details. Ineligible pay details aren’t eligible meal breaks and don’t count toward the guaranteed meal break duration. |
| Paycodes eligible as work | The pay codes that mark eligible work. Pay details with one of the selected pay codes are considered work and count towards the thresholds configured in the rule. |
| Paycodes ineligible as work | The pay codes that mark ineligible pay details. Ineligible pay details don’t count toward the thresholds configured in the rule. |
| Paycategories eligible as work | The pay categories that mark eligible work. Pay details with one of the selected pay categories are considered work and count towards the thresholds configured in the rule. |
| Pay categories ineligible as work | The pay categories that mark ineligible pay details. Ineligible pay details don’t count towards the thresholds configured in the rule. |
| Permanent meal waiver includes | The volunteer list that contains employees who have signed a permanent meal waiver to agree to work through their meal breaks without being paid meal penalties. |
| Meal/Break items to exclude from scheduled time | Specify whether the schedule time used in the rule calculations includes or excludes meals, breaks, or both. |
| Meal Length Counts Towards Threshold | By default, this checkbox is selected and the first meal counts toward the threshold for the second meal. For example, an employee is entitled to a second meal break after eight hours. The employee worked for four hours, and then took a one-hour meal, followed by three more hours of work. With this setting enabled, the employee would be entitled to their second meal. With it cleared, the employee would have to work one more hour before they're entitled to a second meal. When this checkbox is cleared, Dayforce uses net time to calculate thresholds (that is, meals are excluded). |
| Award penalties for each bad meal | Specify whether the rule should award multiple penalties for the same missed meal (for example, if there were both short meals and early meals on the shift). The rule will award a penalty for missed meals, trying to match each penalty to a meal that was taken but which didn’t satisfy the conditions. If extra meals don’t match, extra penalties are paid as well. |
| Include unscheduled shifts | Select this checkbox to include unscheduled shifts in premium calculations. |
| Assign premium to clock out | Select this checkbox and Dayforce uses the shift clock out time as the premium’s start time. |
| Use raw clocked time for calculating Shift length | Select this checkbox to configure the rule to ignore your time entry policy’s clock entry rounding settings 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 your time entry policy’s clock entry rounding settings and use raw clock entry times when determining meal and break lengths. |