Washington
Washington meal break rules for field crews
Washington's first meal rule is straightforward; its second is defined relative to the employer's own normal workday, which no fixed hour number can express.
What the law requires
A 30-minute meal period for employees working more than 5 consecutive hours, and a further meal period for employees working three or more hours longer than a normal work day.
What it means on a crew
The second meal is the awkward one. "Three or more hours longer than a normal work day" is relative to your normal day, so a shop running 8-hour days and one running 10-hour days owe it at different points.
What Punchless does
The first meal threshold is applied at more than 5 hours.
Every rule we enforce is published with the statute behind it and the test that checks it, so this is a claim you can verify rather than take on faith.
Where we fall short
Our second-meal threshold defaults to 11 hours, which is 8 + 3 and therefore assumes an 8-hour normal workday. If your normal day is 10 hours, set it to 13. This is the one meal threshold in our engine that cannot be read straight off the regulation, and it is an assumption you should confirm rather than inherit.
If you are relying on this, ask us before you buy. We would rather lose the sale than have you find out at a hearing.
Verified against primary sources on August 3, 2026. Statutes and wage orders change, and some of this is genuinely unsettled - re-check the source before relying on it. Punchless is not a law firm and this is not legal advice.