A Deep Dive into Idaho Lunch Break Laws: What to Know as an Employee

Idaho Employment Laws

Idaho’s labor laws derive, generally, from federal law and apply to most employers (including state and local government). Several Idaho laws, however, apply only to employees of the Idaho State Government. As does federal law, Idaho law provides that no employer shall employ any employee for a period of time longer than six consecutive hours without providing the employee with a period of time of at least thirty minutes during which the employee is relieved of all duties. However, under Idaho law, if the total number of hours that an employee is required or permitted to work in a day is less than eight, the employer is only required to provide the employee with a thirty minute break if the total number of hours worked in a day is more than five consecutive hours.
Also like federal law, under Idaho law employers of minors must provide them with a break of not less than thirty minutes after they have worked for five consecutive hours. This break may be unpaid and is not required if the end of the minor’s shift occurs within five hours. It is important to note, however, that this provision regarding break time for minors only applies to employees less than 16 years old . Employers are not required to provide employees who are at least 16 years old with a break after they have worked for five consecutive hours.
Thus, under Idaho law, an employee needs to work for at least five consecutive hours to be entitled to a break.
Idaho law follows federal regulations requiring employers to take appropriate steps to ensure the safety and health of their employees, and requiring employers to keep work environments safe and free of known hazards. In addition, Idaho law also requires employers, by way of IDAPA 09.01.03.010.05.f, to allow nonexempt employees to take paid breaks of fifteen minutes every four hours of work, or major fraction thereof (meaning two and a half to six hours). A break of up to twenty minutes at the beginning or end of a work shift will not constitute the "normal workday," and will not violate Idaho’s child labor laws. While these breaks can be paid, the employer may deduct the time taken from the employee’s hours worked. Specifics on timing and duration of rest breaks may be regulated by certain local laws.

Does Idaho Law Require a Lunch Break?

Lunch breaks, or meal breaks as they are sometimes called, are not a requirement under Idaho law. However, your client’s lunch breaks may need to be paid or unpaid depending on what type of work is performed in the lunch hour (more on that below). Additionally, many employers provide a lunch break to its employees as a matter of company policy or collective bargaining agreement with a union or other employee group, even though there is no requirement to do so under the law.
If your client is worried about meal break claims and is considering providing a 30-minute, short meal break, it is important to understand Idaho law does not interpret a 30-minute lunch break as a break longer than the usual 30-minute break. It is treated as any other partial day of pay. As such, the salary attributable to a 10-minute rest break can be deducted from amounts payable to a particular employee; and a "30/30" break is not longer than the 10-minute rest break required. See Wysong v. City of Coeur d’Alene, 2016 WL 10722894 (D. Idaho Jan. 11, 2016); opinions after remand at 2016 WL 3489064 (D. Idaho June 27, 2016); opinions after remand at 2016 WL 4270863 (D. Idaho Aug. 15, 2016).
Generally an employer need not pay for an employee’s time unless the employee is performing work. If your client is providing a short unpaid meal break, and the employee needs to leave the work area or punch out on a time clock, the employee is not performing work and those minutes counted as rest time are not compensable.
More specifically, Idaho’s rules on meal and rest breaks only apply to employees working in the mercantile and manufacturing industries. If neither of these industries applies to the employee at issue, there is no requirement for the employee to receive a meal break. However, many collective bargaining agreements require meal breaks, and the Idaho Supreme Court has issued strong language that the Department of Labor has the authority to regulate hours worked (i.e. overtime) but not wages (i.e. typical meal breaks). See Idaho Truss v. Department of Employment, 121 Idaho 846, 850, 828 P.2d 845, 848 (1992). Control of wages belongs to the legislative branch and cannot be regulated by the Department of Employment.
That said, the Department of Labor has had some limited success in regulating lunches and overtime for "computer professionals" even though there is no statutory requirement to do so, as that term is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations at 29 C.F.R. § 541.400. See the Idaho Department of Labor Fact Sheet on Meal and Rest Periods.

Comparing Federal and State Laws on Lunch Breaks

Federal law and regulations do not require an employer to provide a meal period, whereas Idaho labor laws, as discussed below, do. However, if you have more than four hours of work, federal law does require a paid 10-minute break every four hours.
Within 18 months after the Department of Labor (DOL) issued its overtime rule, the DOL has also released an opinion letter regarding meal and rest breaks. In Labor Department’s First Overtime Opinion Letters Since New Rule Issued, Jackson Lewis reported: The DOL said an employer may impose a digital on-duty waiting time policy for employees, without violating the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act), only if the policy is "truly voluntary," meaning employees are "free to use that time as they see fit." The DOL noted that, in a true "voluntary time off" policy, "[t]he employee is free to leave work, to play games, to listen to music, or to do any other activity he or she wants; the employee simply cannot engage in work for the employer"… [emphasis added]. If that "on-duty" waiting time is required, then it is considered "hours worked" resulting in no economic gain to the company.
For Idaho employers, rules for meal periods are slightly different from those for lunch breaks. Under Idaho law, employers are prohibited from requiring employees to take a meal period at a specific time unless wages are increased. However, they are required to provide a reasonable time for a meal period that must be provided to any employee working more than 5 consecutive hours. Idaho Code § 44-1209. For example, a business could develop a policy that employees can choose to take a meal break any time during their scheduled shift. Or if an employer chose to not provide any meal breaks at all, it would be required to pay employees an additional one hour at the regular rate of pay for every day that an employee worked more than 5 consecutive hours without the required meal period. However, Idaho Department of Labor regulations require employers to pay employees for the regular break periods in the workday (20 min break for employees working 6+ hours = 1/10th of the day). What this means for a federal law analysis (also referred to as a preemption analysis) under the FLSA.

Idaho Employer Policies Regarding Breaks

As discussed above, federal law does not require employers to provide a lunch break or a morning or afternoon break. Idaho law, however, does require employers who operate in Idaho to authorize and permit a reasonable period in which an employee may take a meal break. What is important, as a result, is that employers can draft their own policies for lunch breaks, but need to avoid drafting policies (or adopting unwritten policies) that run afoul of state law by failing to provide Idaho employees with reasonable opportunity for a lunch break.
To avoid unintended problems, employers should address management of breaks and meal periods in the company handbook. One favorable way to approach this issue in the handbook is to restate the requirement of Idaho law, and then specify the company’s desired practice. For example, the company can provide that employees will be provided a 30-minute unpaid meal period for all shifts over six hours worked, unless otherwise directed by a supervisor. Similarly, the handbook can specify that employees should take 10-minute rest breaks every four hours of working time, unless otherwise directed by a supervisor.
Regardless of how an employer wishes to manage lunch breaks, however, supervisors need to be trained to ensure that they do not ask, direct or otherwise discourage employees from taking an authorized break or meal period. And, it is never a good policy to compensate employees for time they did not actually work. This is especially true if the company has a policy of authorizing unpaid breaks because the overall effect of compensation for "non-work" time is to transform a break into compensable work time.

Workplace Rights during Breaks

Although an employer is free to encourage employees to take their meal breaks, it cannot require its employees to do so. Berger v. Idaho State Police," In that case the Idaho Supreme Court reversed a decision of the Idaho Industrial Commission that had found that the agency could force employees to take meal breaks.
Under Idaho Code § 44-1208(1), any employee working shifts of eight hours or more must be afforded a thirty-minute relief period during the first half of each shift. Idaho Code § 44-1208(3) provides that an employer shall grant "all employees," "who have required working schedules of six consecutive hours in the workday. . . a ten (10) minute rest [or ‘recovery’] period for each four-hour work period or major fraction thereof." Under Idaho law, these mandated breaks must be provided and taken as specified.
While I have never seen it happen, some employers will try to limit your right to take meal breaks by requiring you to submit a formal request for a meal break (a "meal request form") and have a manager approve it. Do not do this. The law gives you the right to a meal break , and you cannot be required to jump through hoops like having to get a manager’s approval to take a meal break.
An employer cannot interrupt an employee’s meal break, but it can encourage them to finish their meal and get back to work on time. All of this is consistent with encouraging breaks to make sure that employees are properly rested and not working too much.
Employers cannot schedule "working lunches." Some employers will, unfortunately, try to get away with taking advantage of employees by telling them that they need to get work done during their lunch break. In that case, an employee should immediately leave the employer’s premises, and take a 30-minute break. After 30 minutes, the employee is free to start working again. At that point, the employee basically has two choices. First, the employee can stop working, and leave the employer’s premises. Alternatively, the employee can keep working. If the employee chooses to keep working, the employer will be required to compensate the employee for his/her time. If the employer requires the employee to stop working at the end of the 30-minute period, the employee will cave to the employer’s demands.

Remedies for Lunch Break Violations

Failure to Provide a Lunch Break
Under the Idaho Wage Statute, employee who works a given workweek is entitled to his or her regular hourly pay plus a lunch break. If your employer regularly denies you your statutory right to a meal break or fails to compensate you for the time worked, the labor laws in Idaho provide remedies and protect workers from retaliation by the employer for asserting their rights.
100% Compliance With Break Law
An Idaho employer who has 20 employees or fewer is required under the law to provide employees a minimum 30 minute uninterrupted meal period during which employees are relieved from work but only if the employee works at least 8 hours during the day. However, Idaho employers with more than 20 employees must comply with 100% of the provisions of Idaho’s lunch break law.
Illegal Deductions
The time spent eating is not compensable under Idaho law unless an employee works through a designated meal or work period. As such, employers are allowed to deduct time employees spent at the lunch period so long as the deduction is for 30 consecutive minutes. However, employers are required to do so manually and not through an automatic deduction for lunches that could result in an unauthorized reduction in hours worked. If an employee is expected to continue performing work duties during his or her meal period, even if the employee is relieved of duties, the employer must pay the employee for those 30 minutes. Failure to comply with these laws may be deemed an illegal deduction.
Reporting Lunch Break Violations
If I believe my Idaho employer did not properly provide me with a lunch break or deducted time in a manner that is contrary to the law, what should I do?
Employees should first raise the issue with the appropriate person (human resources officer, office manager, etc.) in the company. However, if the employee is unwilling to do so, he or she may file a complaint with the Idaho Department of Labor. Ultimately, an employee may also file a civil action in Idaho to recover these unpaid wages.
Employees are protected from retaliation or discrimination when they report wage violations. Additionally, an employee will not be retaliated against for participating in an investigation, such as seeking out a witness to the employer’s alleged violations. Any adverse action taken against an employee for doing so constitutes illegal retaliation and is prohibited.

Recent Developments and Case Examples

While the overall body of law in Idaho dealing with lunch breaks has remained relatively consistent, changes to the law in other areas have had related impacts on lunch break issues. Certain statutory requirements for meal or rest breaks for minor or junior employees, which used to only apply to minors, now apply to junior employees as well. Generally, employers are required to give each minor employee a rest and lunch break at the closest break that occurs after the minor employee has worked a total of five (5) or more consecutive hours in a particular day. I.C. 44-1305. The takeaways regarding this statute are: (1) there is no room to "fill in" break and meal periods; (2) employers cannot schedule the breaks and meal periods before the employee has finished a total of five hours of work and (3) the breaks must be paid and counted as time worked.
Different state statutes also apply to the manufacturing industry, requiring that employers in manufacturing must give each employee a break of at least one half hour for each 5 hours of work to the nearest quarter hour increment after the five hours are completed. I.C. 44-1304. Once again , the takeaways regarding this statute are: (1) there is no room to "fill in" break and lunch periods; (2) employers cannot schedule the breaks and meal periods before the employee has performed a total of five hours of work and (3) the break must be paid and counted as time worked.
But, like with many other labor laws, the economic and social complexities of life in the real world often result in litigation. For example, in 2019 the Idaho Supreme Court affirmed a $13 million judgment against Albertsons’ store chain after the jury found that the store required employees to work during unpaid breaks or misses break altogether when they were too busy. In justifying its ruling, the court cited the HR supervisor of the company’s Idaho stores who testified he had "participated in breaking down the breaks the average employee took so it did not meet the hours worked under the law." A lawsuit after such a wage judgement is issued is not over and can last for years. It is important to remember that wage and hour claims are one of the few claims that will be brought in idaho state courts, rather than the federal courts.