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 is owed past 5 hours. For the second, you tell us your normal workday in Settings and we owe it at that plus 3 hours, from exactly that point - an 8-hour shop at 11 hours, a 10-hour shop at 13. It starts at 8 until you set it, and every change is kept in your rule history.
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.
Other Washington rules
Verified against primary sources on October 1, 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.