Legal Question in Employment Law in Ohio

I am a server at a local restaurant and I feel as if my employers are stealing from their servers. Every shift you work they deduct a half an hour worth of pay ( which I know does not seem like a lot but it does add up and its an hour's worth when you work a double) for breaks, because we can not clock out to take them. However, they rarely let us take breaks, for instance yesterday I was not allowed a break for almost six and a half hours. Every time I asked they told me no, and then roughly about ten minutes before I was told to cash out, a bartender gave me a break for ten minutes. If not for the bartender, I would not have been allowed a break my entire shift, but they still would have deducted it from my pay. My employers deny us breaks on a regular basis but they still get to deduct our paychecks. Even if we get one 5 minute break (because when they do give us breaks it can only be for five minutes) they still deduct the 30 minutes from our pay. Is this legal?


Asked on 8/20/10, 1:36 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Patrick Vitone Pat Vitone, Attorney at Law

Hmm. Ohio laws are so "anti-employee" that it would be remarkable; however, you may have a point here. This is what the U. S. Dept. of Labor says about breaks:

"Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks. However, when employers do offer short breaks (usually lasting about 5 to 20 minutes), federal law considers the breaks as compensable work hours that would be included in the sum of hours worked during the work week and considered in determining if overtime was worked. Unauthorized extensions of authorized work breaks need not be counted as hours worked when the employer has expressly and unambiguously communicated to the employee that the authorized break may only last for a specific length of time, that any extension of the break is contrary to the employer's rules, and any extension of the break will be punished.

Bona fide meal periods (typically lasting at least 30 minutes), serve a different purpose than coffee or snack breaks and, thus, are not work time and are not compensable." at http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/workhours/breaks.htm

You may want to check out that web link or give the Department of Labor a call at 1-866-487-2365.

Good luck.

This message is intended only as informational. It should not be construed as legal advice or an agreement to provide legal advice.

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Answered on 8/26/10, 9:21 am


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