West Virginia Lunch and Break Law

Employers and Employees alike often wonder what meals and breaks are required by law. My research shows that West Virginia is one of a number of states with a meal break required by law.

West Virginia state law mandates that a 20 minute meal break must be provided to all employees if they have worked six or more hours. This break must be at a a reasonable time designated by the employer. If employees have the opportunity to eat while working, the employer does not have to provide the break. While the state law does not specify if this break is to be paid or unpaid, Federal law generally mandates that breaks of this type should be paid if they are under 30 minutes in length.

West Virginia residents should also be aware of a few federal regulations related to work hour issues. These include laws about waiting time, travel time, and sleeping time.

Whether or not waiting time needs to be considered paid work hours depends on the situation. If an employee is allowed to do something of his or her choice while waiting for another task to be finished or while waiting at the workplace for his or her services to be called upon, it should be considered work time. On the other hand, if an employee is waiting to be called upon, but has great freedom to do what he or she wishes while on call (and has plenty of time to respond to the call), it is not generally considered paid work time.

Sleeping time is another issue of interest to workers in some professions. An employee required to be on duty less than 24 hours is considered to be “working” even if he or she is allowed to sleep during some of those hours when not busy. If an employee is on duty more than 24 hours, a sleeping period of no more than eight hours may be deducted from work hours. However, this can only be done if sleeping facilities are provided and at least five hours of uninterrupted sleep may be achieved by the employee.

Finally, there is the issue of travel time. The typical rule of thumb is that time spent in the normal day’s commute to and from work is not considered paid working time. However, if an employee is traveling in the course of his or her work day, it must be considered paid work time.

A thorough presentation of laws on this topic may be found on the West Virginia All in One Labor Law Poster. This poster also presents required notices for all areas of both state and federal labor laws.