I've seen this question asked several times on this forum, but none are as specific as I currently need. My question is this. I'm a full time worker in a retail store. I'm not paid on commission. I am paid by the hour. My employer requires all full time employees to take a 30 minute lunch unpaid. This is against my wishes for a variety of reasons and I fail to see how it can be legal.

Is it legal for my employer to force me to be present for 30 minutes every day without paying me. This is not a question of the legality of unpaid 30 minutes lunches. It's a question of whether I am forced to take them. I should point out, I do not recieve any extra payment or overtime for taking the lunches what so ever. It is simply a matter of my 8 hour paid shift taking 8 and a half hours of my time. I can find many resources saying that companies are required by law to grant a 30 minutes lunch period without pay, but nothing says I'm required to take it.

If it is legal, to whom do I direct my immediate complaints?

There is nothing illegal about your employer requiring you to take an unpaid lunch break. If your employer wishes you to take a lunch break, you take a lunch break.

You are free to complain to HR or your manager if you choose to, but they have no legal obligation whatsoever to respond to your complaint, and if you complain loud enough and long enough they are free to fire you for complaining. (No, it would not be illegal to fire you for complaining about being required to take a lunch break you do not wish to take.)

One follow up question. Is there any length of time my employer is legally allowed to keep me at work unpaid? Is there a law to stop them from keeping me there for say 1 hour, 2 hours? It seems the law gives me two options. Keep a job that forces me to attend work unpaid, or find a new job. Are than any restrictions to the employers power to use my free time as they choose?

Thank you again, this site is really a life saver. In some cases it would be a job saver as well! :)

The law does not look at your employer requiring you to take a lunch break as "forcing you to remain at the job unpaid" and you had best keep that in mind because you are going to get yourself into a good deal of trouble if you continue with that attitude.

I didn't mean you any offense, I'm just not sure how else to describe what is going on. I do appreciate that some people would love to have lunch breaks and do not get to take them. I appreciate that I have the ability to take the break. I didn't mean to touch on a sore spot here, :) . Just trying to figure out what my rights are.

So far we've established that my employer is within legal rights to keep me on site for a half hour without paying me. Again, I don't understand a better way to describe the practice. Is there a limit to the amount of time that they can decide I should need for my mandatory lunch? I really don't understand what the law is requiring this and/or how it reads. I thought it states that they are required to offer a 1/2 hour lunch unpaid. I did not know that meant I had to take it. That alone adds up to 130 hours a year (three working weeks and 10 hours of my time lost). So I'm trying to figure out if there is a limit to the practice.

If you are looking for a law that says the employer may require x but not y, there isn't one.

I suspect that the employer could "get away with" as you put it, requiring you to take a lunch break of up to an hour. After that, my guess is that the DOL would require the employer to either pay you or require that you be allowed to leave the premises. However, there is no limit to the length of time an employer can require you to take as a break.

I realize that you do not want any unpaid time; that you want to come it, do your work, and go home at the earliest possible point. However, your employer is not trying to "get away with" anything. Though breaks are not required by law in your state, most states would prefer their employers to offer them even if they choose not to make it mandatory. It is also proven that employees work better for a break, so it is to everyone's benefit that you take that break.

No one is trying to cheat you. No one is trying to dictate how you use your personal time. But your employer is trying to be fair and provide what is best for their employees. If you would prefer not to take a break, you are free to REQUEST, not demand, that they excuse you from taking one. They are not required to do so because you request it; they are free to insist that you take it. But you can try.

Requiring an employee to take a 30 minute meal break is by no means unreasonable and there are plenty of employees out there who wish they had your "problem".