I have reviewed other postings and think I have my answer but I want to make sure I have the facts straight before confronting my employer. I am an hourly paid employee of a large corporation eligible for overtime when working over 40 hours per week. My issue is lunch breaks. My employer states that it is federal/state law that if I work over 6 or 6.5 hours that I must take an unpaid 30 minute lunch break. I believe this to be incorrect. I think they may have to offer but that I may not have to take it. Also is it legal to require the unpaid lunch break as part of a company policy? Thanks in advance for your time.

Your employer is incorrect, or is thinking of another state. But you are incorrect as well.

Neither Federal nor SC law requires that a lunch break be offered, and in that your employer is incorrect. But you are incorrect in assuming that you do not have to take a lunch break if you don't want to. If your employer says you take a lunch break, you take a lunch break, whether the law says you have to or not. The employer, not the employee, determines what hours are worked, and that includes breaks. An employer MAY require an unpaid lunch break even if the law does not make it mandatory.