Finally, a Solution for Required Rest and Meal Breaks
Okay... here's the deal.
In roughly 20 states, employers are required to provide rest and/or meal breaks under various conditions. California is special in that they set up a real-time penalty structure for employers: if an employee is not provided a meal break within the first 5 hours of a shift that is 6+ hours long, they are owed an extra hour of pay at their regular rate of pay (average including any incentive pay that period) for EVERY shift!
Oregon and Washington require employers to make sure breaks are actually taken, not just offered. That's tough for anyone with unsupervised field employees.
The biggest compliance challenge for most contractors is that field employees do not normally WANT to stop for 30 minutes for lunch (I know I didn’t when I was a tech!). Who wants to stop a job partway through just to eat a sandwich that only takes 5 minutes, or worse, sit there twiddling their thumbs? Add to this the possibility they might get in trouble if the customer complains about delays, they may lose pay opportunity, etc. So they don't want to stop for breaks or lunch, but you're legally required to entice (or force) them to do it. What's an employer to do?
Some payroll systems allow you to pay rest/meal break penalties automatically so you stay compliant if employees skip the breaks, but this has two drawbacks.
Employers who pay penalties automatically spend a LOT more in labor than they need to. You shouldn't pay for every single skipped break when you're legitimately providing the opportunity for employees to take them.
Paying employees extra money when they skip breaks actually incentivize employees to do so... which is the opposite of the laws' original intent.
In other words, we don't recommend automatically paying penalties for skipped breaks. But if you don't do that, the challenge becomes proving these breaks were provided and encouraged in the first place - that is, demonstrating that you didn't secretly make your employees to work through breaks, despite your official documented policies. Proving this is a pain in the backside when managing field employees who are unsupervised 99% of the time.
I have spent the last year pouring over court cases, working with CA lawyers (if you know me, you know how much I HATE having to do that), and navigating company policies to create a sustainable system to kill the incentive to skip breaks, without massive administrative burden. And I finally have it ready.
This new system will not only help you save a LOT of money in the penalties that you don’t actually need to pay, but can also be used to protect your brand in a lawsuit in any state with required break laws (even OR and WA!). This has been rolled out to active My HR Guy clients, and includes a compliance brief explaining the thought process and simple setup, plus the resources needed to implement it.
If you have been on the fence about signing up for services, now may be a good time, since it could save you a ton of money in rest/meal break penalties or lawsuits. Contact us today to get started.
By the way, are you curious whether your state is impacted? Each state below has a rest and/or meal break requirement with its own unique nuances. My HR Guy can help you understand your requirements, and what you can do about it.
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Illinois
Kentucky
Maine
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New York
North Dakota
Oregon
Rhode Island
Tennessee
Vermont
Washington
West Virginia
