{"id":1038,"date":"2015-10-19T18:36:54","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T18:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nelsonboydlaw.com\/blog\/?p=1038"},"modified":"2021-09-03T15:49:59","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T15:49:59","slug":"what-are-my-rights-as-an-employee-in-the-state-of-washington-meal-periods-and-rest-periods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nelsonboydlaw.com\/blog\/articles\/what-are-my-rights-as-an-employee-in-the-state-of-washington-meal-periods-and-rest-periods\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT ARE MY RIGHTS AS AN EMPLOYEE IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON? MEAL PERIODS AND REST PERIODS"},"content":{"rendered":"
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stevepb<\/a> \/ Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

Historically, there were no rules about what employers had to pay their workers.\u00a0 If an employer could find someone to work 14 hours a day for $1.00 a day, there was no law against that.\u00a0 Employers were not required to allow workers to eat on the job, and the idea of regular breaks was unheard of.\u00a0 Fortunately, we live in more forward-thinking times. Nutrition and short periods of rest have been shown to be beneficial to both employees and employers, and the meal and rest breaks are required by law.<\/p>\n

MEAL PERIODS<\/span>.<\/strong>\u00a0 Under the laws of the State of Washington, employees must be allowed at least a 30-minute meal period if more than 5 hours are worked in a shift.\u00a0 The break must be at least 2 hours into the shift before the meal time can start. No employee shall be required to work more than five consecutive hours without a meal period.<\/p>\n

Generally, a business is not required to pay for meal periods if workers are free from any duties for their entire meal period. However, workers must be paid during their meal period when:<\/p>\n