California Meal Penalty Calculator

California Meal Period Penalty Calculator

Estimated Penalty Owed

$0.00

How California Meal Penalties Work

In California, labor laws regarding meal periods are among the strictest in the United States. Under California Labor Code section 226.7 and applicable IWC Wage Orders, employers must provide non-exempt employees with compliant meal periods. If an employer fails to provide a compliant meal period, they must pay the employee one additional hour of pay at the employee's regular rate of compensation for each workday that the meal period is not provided.

Key Requirements for a Legal Meal Period:

• The Timing Rule: A 30-minute unpaid meal period must begin before the end of the fifth hour of work.
• The Second Meal Rule: A second 30-minute meal period is required if an employee works more than 10 hours in a day.
• Relieved of Duty: The employee must be completely relieved of all duties. If they are required to stay on-site or carry a radio, it counts as a violation.
• Uninterrupted: The 30 minutes must be continuous and uninterrupted.

Penalty Calculation Example

Imagine an employee earns $22.00 per hour. Over the course of a two-week pay period, their supervisor asks them to work through their lunch break three times because the office is busy, and twice they are only given a 15-minute break instead of 30 minutes.

Calculations:

• Total Violations: 5 days
• Penalty Rate: 1 hour of pay per day ($22.00)
• Total Penalty Due: 5 x $22.00 = $110.00

Note: This penalty is in addition to the actual wages earned for the time worked.

Common Pitfalls for Employers

It is important to note that a "late" lunch (starting after 5 hours and 1 minute of work) triggers the same 1-hour penalty as a "missed" lunch. Additionally, California law limits penalties to one meal period penalty per workday and one rest period penalty per workday, for a maximum of two premium payments per day if both types of breaks are violated.

function calculatePenalty() { var hourlyRate = parseFloat(document.getElementById('hourlyRate').value); var violations = parseFloat(document.getElementById('violationCount').value); var resultDiv = document.getElementById('resultDisplay'); var totalDisplay = document.getElementById('totalAmount'); var breakdownDisplay = document.getElementById('breakdownText'); if (isNaN(hourlyRate) || hourlyRate <= 0) { alert("Please enter a valid hourly rate."); return; } if (isNaN(violations) || violations < 0) { alert("Please enter a valid number of violations."); return; } var totalPenalty = hourlyRate * violations; totalDisplay.innerHTML = "$" + totalPenalty.toLocaleString(undefined, {minimumFractionDigits: 2, maximumFractionDigits: 2}); breakdownDisplay.innerHTML = "Calculation: " + violations + " violation(s) × $" + hourlyRate.toFixed(2) + " (Regular Rate)"; resultDiv.style.display = 'block'; resultDiv.scrollIntoView({ behavior: 'smooth', block: 'nearest' }); }