Another misconception is that employees are entitled to additional pay if they waive their meal breaks. While employees can claim one hour of pay at their regular rate for each workday a mandated meal break is not provided, voluntarily waiving a break doesn't entitle you to extra pay.

For each workday that you fail to provide an employee a meal break as required, you owe the employee one additional hour of pay at the employee's regular rate of pay. The additional hour of pay is a wage owed to the employee.

An employer should provide a 30-minute unpaid meal break for every five hours worked and an additional 30-minute meal break for employees who work more than ten hours in a shift. The employer should also provide 10-minute paid rest breaks to non-exempt employees for every four hours worked.

Labor Code § 512 requires California employers to give unpaid lunch breaks to non-exempt employees. Lunch breaks must be uninterrupted. Employers cannot require employees to do any work while on their lunch breaks. They also cannot discourage employees from taking one.

If your employer fails to provide the required meal period, you are to be paid one hour of pay at your regular rate of compensation (this is referred to as meal period premium pay) for each workday that the meal period is not provided.

Section 551 of the Labor Code states: “Every person employed in any occupation of labor is entitled to one day's rest therefrom in seven.” Section 552 states: “No employer of labor shall cause his employees to work more than six days in seven.” (Emphasis added.)

The California meal penalty, also known as meal premium pay, is a monetary penalty employers must pay to employees when they fail to provide legally compliant meal breaks. It's equivalent to one hour of the employee's regular rate of pay for each missed or shortened meal break.