A meal penalty, also called a meal break premium or meal period premium, is one additional hour of pay at the employee's regular rate of pay for each workday a compliant meal break was not provided, under California Labor Code section 226.7. Use this calculator to turn missed meal breaks into a dollar estimate of the premium pay owed.
| Base hourly rate | - |
Regular rate of pay The rate each premium hour must be paid at | - |
| Typical workday | Compliant |
| Estimated premium pay owed | - |
Wage claims can reach back 3 years, and up to 4 years through an Unfair Competition Law claim. Meal and rest break premiums stack to a maximum of 2 premium hours per workday: one for meal violations, one for rest violations. This figure covers meal premiums only.
One missed break per employee per week costs a 20-person team roughly $17,576 per year before PAGA exposure.
Timewave alerts managers before the 5th hour and documents every waiver.
Need to check one specific shift minute by minute? Use the California Meal Break Calculator. For overtime and double time, use the California Overtime Wage Calculator. Handling a personnel records request? Download the free California Personnel File Checklist.
California workers, payroll teams, and attorneys use different names for the same payment. Employees usually search for the meal penalty or for missed meal premium pay. The Labor Commissioner and the courts call it a meal period premium or meal break premium. Every term points to the same rule: when an employer fails to provide a compliant meal break, Labor Code section 226.7 requires one additional hour of pay for that workday.
The meal break premium glossary entry covers the violation types and worked examples in more depth, and our state meal break laws page explains when breaks are due in the first place.
In Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel, the California Supreme Court held that meal and rest premiums must be paid at the regular rate of pay, the same rate used to calculate overtime. The regular rate includes nondiscretionary bonuses, commissions, shift differentials, and incentive pay on top of the base hourly wage, and the decision applies retroactively.
The difference is real money. An employee earning $20 per hour with a $500 nondiscretionary bonus over an 80-hour period has a regular rate of $26.25. Twelve missed breaks are worth $315 at the regular rate and only $240 at the base rate. Many free calculators still use the base rate, which understates every estimate for employees who earn extra compensation. This calculator computes the regular rate for you.
In Naranjo v. Spectrum Security Services, the California Supreme Court held that meal premiums count as wages. That classification has consequences: premiums must appear on wage statements, and they must be paid in full when employment ends.
When premiums go unpaid, the exposure cascades. An employer can owe waiting time penalties of up to 30 days of wages per departing employee, plus wage statement penalties of up to $4,000 per employee. PAGA lawsuits then multiply exposure across every affected employee and pay period. The 2024 PAGA reform caps civil penalties at 15% for employers who took all reasonable steps to comply, and at 30% for employers who cure within 60 days of notice, which rewards documented, proactive compliance.
The statute of limitations for wage claims reaches back 3 years from the date of filing, and claims brought with an Unfair Competition Law cause of action can reach back 4 years. Check old wage statements: employers who pay premiums list them as separate line items, and a missing line item on a week with a missed break is useful evidence.
One caveat: employees who signed a valid meal period waiver for shifts of 6 hours or less have no claim for those shifts, as long as the waiver was written and revocable at any time (Bradsbery v. Vicar, 2025).
Entertainment industry meal penalties follow union contracts, with escalating payments for every half hour a meal is delayed on set. Those amounts come from collective bargaining agreements, so they differ from the Labor Code section 226.7 premium this page calculates. For studio shift timing rules, the California Meal Break Calculator includes a Motion Picture mode.
A meal period premium is one additional hour of pay, at the employee's regular rate of pay, that a California employer owes for each workday it fails to provide a compliant meal break. It is also called a meal penalty or a meal break premium. The requirement comes from Labor Code section 226.7.
One hour of pay at the employee's regular rate of pay for each workday with a meal break violation. At the 2026 California minimum wage of $16.90 per hour, the smallest possible meal penalty is $16.90 per day. Employees who earn nondiscretionary bonuses or commissions are owed more, because those payments raise the regular rate.
Multiply the number of workdays with a meal break violation by one hour of pay at the regular rate. The regular rate equals all compensation for the period, including nondiscretionary bonuses and commissions, divided by the hours worked in that period. A maximum of one meal premium is owed per workday, and rest break violations can add one more premium hour per day.
The regular rate. In Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel (2021), the California Supreme Court held that meal and rest premiums must be paid at the regular rate of pay, the same rate used for overtime, which includes nondiscretionary bonuses, commissions, and incentive pay. An employer that pays premiums at the base hourly rate underpays every employee who earns extra compensation.
Three years for wage claims under the statute of limitations, and up to four years when the claim includes an Unfair Competition Law cause of action. A claim filed in 2026 can reach violations from 2023, and in some cases 2022.
No. Entertainment industry meal penalties come from union contracts, such as the IATSE and SAG-AFTRA agreements, which set escalating payments for delayed meals on set. This page covers the California Labor Code section 226.7 premium that applies to non-exempt employees statewide. The two systems can apply to the same crew, but the amounts and rules differ.