You can waive your meal break if you and your employer agree, and you don’t work more than six hours. The amount of meal breaks you must receive increases with the amount of hours you work. California Time Clock Laws Regarding Meal BreaksĬalifornia law requires that your employer give you a 30-minute, unpaid meal break if you work more than five hours in a workday. This can be disappointing, but the California Court of Appeals indicates that employees should at least break even in a rounding system if they work long enough. Under federal law, an employer can round down working time lasting seven minutes or less. Some California wage laws also closely follow federal law. This means that if a rounding policy rounds up and down, is not applied to only reduce employee hours, and doesn’t result in constant undercompensation, it’s probably legal. The policy didn’t result in systematic undercompensation of employees.Superior Court, the California Court of Appeals decided that an employer’s pay policy that rounded hours worked to the closest quarter-hour were legal since: Since time clock rules for hourly employees require that California employers pay for all working time, is hour rounding legal? Rounding hours worked in CA can be legal, but it depends on the details of your situation.

Your employer might round your hours up or down. Some employers round the hours or minutes their employees work to simplify payroll calculations.Īn employer might round your working time to the nearest minute, six minutes, quarter-hour, or other amount. This is likely because your employer engages in rounding hours. If you inspect your payroll records, you might notice that the amount of time your employer pays you for doesn’t always match the amount of time you actually work. Contact an Attorney to Claim What You’ve Earned California Time Clock Laws Regarding CompensationĬalifornia law typically requires your employer to timely and regularly pay you for all your working time.Ĭalifornia timekeeping requirements also obligate your employer to keep detailed records of your payroll history and make them available to you.

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