Free tool · California

What does a missed break actually cost?

California owes an employee one extra hour of pay for each workday a meal break is missed, short, or late — and a separate hour for rest breaks. One hour sounds small. Multiplied by a team and a few years, it is not.

How many employees are affected?

Their regular rate of pay ($ per hour)

Use the regular rate of compensation — base pay plus non-discretionary bonuses and shift differentials, not base pay alone.

Missed meal breaks, days per week

Missed rest breaks, days per week

Over how many years?

Wage claims in California commonly reach back several years, which is why a small daily number becomes a large one.

Estimated premium pay owed

$6,240

312 premium hours over 1 year — about $6,240 per year.

Meal break premiums: $6,240
Rest break premiums: $0

What this does not includeWaiting-time penalties for former employees, itemised wage-statement penalties, interest, the other side's attorney fees, or any PAGA exposure. Those are frequently larger than the premium pay itself. This estimate is also not legal advice — it is arithmetic on the numbers you typed.

The record is what decides this

In practice these cases turn on whether you can show when each break started and ended. WeERM records every meal and rest break as its own entry — not as a deduction — so a short or missing break is visible on the timesheet while you can still fix it.

See how the break record works

How the rule works

When is a meal break required?: A 30-minute unpaid meal period before the end of the 5th hour of work, and a second one before the end of the 10th hour. It must be uninterrupted and the employee must be free to leave.
When is a rest break required?: A paid 10-minute rest period for every 4 hours worked, or major fraction of it — so roughly one per half-shift. Rest breaks are paid time and are a separate entitlement from meal breaks.
What rate is the premium paid at?: The regular rate of compensation — which since the California Supreme Court's 2021 decision in Ferra v. Loews includes non-discretionary bonuses and shift differentials, not just base hourly pay. Using base pay alone under-counts.
Can more than one premium be owed in a day?: Yes — one for meal violations and one for rest violations, so up to two hours in a single day. They do not merge into one.

This page is general information, not legal advice, and it deliberately does not model the contested parts of the rule (valid waivers, on-duty meal agreements, rounding practices, or whether a particular day counts as a violation). For a specific situation, talk to a California employment lawyer.