Virginia Meal and Rest Break Laws (2026)

The rule

	Virginia
Meal or rest break, 16 and older	Not required by Virginia or federal law
Workers under 16	A lunch period of at least 30 minutes after no more than 5 continuous hours of work. A break of less than 30 minutes does not interrupt a continuous period of work (Va. Code 40.1-80.1)
Hours for 14- and 15-year-olds	No more than 3 hours on a school day or 18 in a school week; no more than 8 hours on a non-school day or 40 in a non-school week; only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. (9 p.m. from June 1 to Labor Day)
Short breaks, if given	Breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes count as hours worked and must be paid
Meal breaks, if given	A meal period of 30 minutes or more can be unpaid only if the employee is completely relieved of duty

What the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry says

The Department's labor law FAQ asks whether an employer has to provide breaks or a meal period and answers: no, unless the employee is under the age of 16. It gives the same answer on limits to daily or weekly hours. For adult staff, breaks are a matter of company policy.

The one state break rule is in the child labor law, Va. Code 40.1-80.1: no child may work more than five hours continuously without an interval of at least 30 minutes for a lunch period, and a period of less than 30 minutes does not interrupt a continuous period of work. A 10- or 15-minute rest break does not reset the five-hour count.

What the federal rule requires

Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks. What it does regulate is pay when an employer chooses to give them.

Short breaks, usually 5 to 20 minutes, count as hours worked. They go into the weekly total and can push an employee over 40 hours into overtime. A bona fide meal period, typically 30 minutes or more, does not count as work time, but only if the employee is completely relieved from duty. Someone who eats at the register while answering questions has not been relieved, and that time is paid.

Worked example: a 15-person grocery store with summer hires

The store gives every employee a paid 10-minute break on longer shifts and a 30-minute unpaid lunch on shifts of 6 hours or more, and it hires 15-year-olds for the summer.

A 15-year-old bagger scheduled 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on a July Saturday must start a lunch of at least 30 minutes by 3 p.m., because he cannot work more than 5 hours in a row. With the lunch unpaid, the shift is 6 hours of work, under the 8-hour limit for a non-school day.
His paid 10-minute break at 12:30 p.m. does not restart the 5-hour count, because a break of less than 30 minutes does not interrupt a continuous period of work.
A 17-year-old stocker on the same shift has no state break requirement. The store's policy decides his breaks, and federal rules decide the pay.
The 10-minute breaks are hours worked for everyone and count toward 40. A cashier asked to cover the register during her lunch has been put back to work, so that lunch is paid.

How to track it

For adults, Virginia's break question is a pay question: are short breaks paid, and is unpaid meal time actually work-free? For workers under 16 it is a timing question: did a 30-minute break start before the fifth continuous hour ended? Both need the break recorded as its own punch, not a guessed deduction.

ClockOut records meal and rest breaks as their own punches, so an unpaid lunch comes off the timesheet only when the employee actually clocks out for it. Admins can set break rules of the form "after X hours worked, a break of at least Y minutes", and a shift that passes the mark without the break lands in the manager's exception inbox. By default those rules apply to everyone. On Pro, you can put under-16 staff on their own work rule set with a 5-hour meal rule and leave adult shifts without it; otherwise, check under-16 schedules by hand. Minor-labor rules can alert admins when an employee under 18 passes a daily hours cap you set.

Virginia meal and rest breaks FAQ

Does Virginia require a lunch break?

Not for employees 16 and older. The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry states that employers do not have to provide breaks or a meal period unless the employee is under 16.

What break does a 14- or 15-year-old get in Virginia?

At least 30 minutes for lunch after no more than 5 continuous hours of work. A break shorter than 30 minutes does not interrupt the continuous period, so a 15-minute pause does not restart the count.

Do short breaks have to be paid in Virginia?

Yes. Virginia does not require them, but if you give breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes, federal rules count them as hours worked. They must be paid and they count toward the 40-hour overtime threshold.

Can I deduct 30 minutes for lunch automatically?

Only if the employee actually took a duty-free meal period of at least 30 minutes. If they worked through it or were interrupted, the deduction becomes unpaid wages. Recording the actual break punches avoids the dispute.

Sources, checked September 23, 2026

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules change; check the linked source.