Meal & Rest Breaks
How far back can a break-premium claim reach?
By the WeERM Editorial Team
Three years, and four under an unfair-competition theory. Murphy v. Kenneth Cole Productions (2007) held the extra hour owed for a missed meal or rest period is a wage rather than a penalty — which moved it from the one-year penalty limitations period to the three-year wage period.
The question sounds technical and decides the size of almost every break case. Penalties in California carry a one-year limitations period; unpaid wages carry three, and four when the claim is framed under the unfair-competition statute.
Murphy held the additional hour of pay under Labor Code § 226.7 is a wage. The court looked at what the payment does rather than what it is called: it compensates the employee for work performed during a period they should have been relieved, which is the definition of a wage.
The arithmetic consequence is immediate. The same daily habit — a break that starts nine minutes late on busy days — is a one-year exposure if the premium is a penalty and a three-year one if it is a wage. Murphy made it the second, and tripled the size of every claim of this kind at a stroke.
It also means the premium behaves like a wage everywhere else in the code. It has to appear on the wage statement, and it is payable in the final paycheque — which is how a single unpaid premium turns into wage-statement and waiting-time claims attached to it.
Sources
Reviewed 2026-08-10 by the WeERM team. Informational only, not legal advice. California rules change; confirm against the current source before acting.