Kentucky break laws: a lunch period between the third and fifth hour, plus a paid 10-minute rest for every 4 hours

The short answer

Kentucky requires two separate breaks, in two statutes:

• Lunch period (KRS 337.355): a reasonable period for lunch, as close to the middle of the shift as possible. An employee cannot be required to take it sooner than three hours after the shift starts, nor later than five hours after it starts. A collective bargaining agreement or a mutual agreement between employee and employer can vary this.
• Rest period (KRS 337.365): at least 10 minutes during each four hours worked, in addition to the lunch period, with no reduction in compensation for hourly or salaried employees. A collective bargaining agreement can replace it only with equal or greater rest time.

The lunch period has no minute count in the statute; 30 minutes is the working standard, and under federal rules anything under 20 minutes is paid time anyway. The rest period is paid by statute. Kentucky is one of only a handful of states with both rules, alongside California, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

What it looks like on a shift

8-hour shift, 8am to 4:30pm, with a 30-minute unpaid lunch:

Time	What the law expects
8:00 to 12:00	A paid 10-minute rest period somewhere in the first four hours.
11:00 to 1:00	The lunch period must start in this window: no sooner than three hours in (11:00), no later than five hours in (1:00). Mid-shift is 12:15.
12:30 to 4:30	A second paid 10-minute rest period in the second block of four hours.

6-hour shift, 4pm to 10pm: one paid 10-minute rest period in the first four hours, a lunch period starting between 7pm and 9pm, and the second block is only two hours, so no second rest period. Whether a short shift needs a lunch at all is the grey area in the statute: it speaks of "employees" without a shift-length threshold, so the safe reading is to give one on any shift that passes the five-hour mark.

4-hour shift: one paid rest period; the lunch window never opens, because the shift ends before hour five.

Paid, unpaid, and the two mistakes that get reported

The 10-minute rest period is on the clock. Asking staff to clock out for it is a deduction the statute forbids, and the minutes count toward the 40 hours that trigger federal overtime.

The lunch period can be unpaid only under the federal test: the employee is completely relieved of duty. A cashier who eats at the register while covering it, a nurse who keeps the call light, a cook who answers tickets: paid time. An auto-deducted 30 minutes on a day the person never left the floor is the most common Kentucky wage claim about breaks.

The second mistake is timing. A lunch at 10:30 on an 8am start (two and a half hours in) breaks the rule as clearly as one at 2pm (six hours in). The window is the point of the statute.

The overtime rules that make Kentucky different

• Weekly overtime after 40 hours, under both the FLSA and Kentucky law.
• Seventh-day overtime (KRS 337.050): an employee who works seven days in a workweek is owed time and a half for the hours worked on the seventh day, with exemptions listed in the statute. A schedule that runs someone Monday to Sunday triggers it even if the week stays under 40 hours; check the statutory exemptions for your case.
• No daily overtime.

Minors under 18 have their own rule under the child labor law: no more than five hours of continuous work without a 30-minute lunch period, plus limits on hours and late shifts on school days.

Building it into the schedule

1. Write the lunch period into every shift with a start time inside the window: not before hour three, not after hour five.
2. Add a paid 10-minute rest period per four-hour block, on the clock. Two on an 8-hour shift.
3. Make the lunch a clock-out and clock-in if it is unpaid.
4. Avoid seven-day weeks, or price them: the seventh day is time and a half.
5. Publish two weeks ahead so the lunch window can be staffed rather than skipped.

Squadra writes the breaks inside each shift with start times, warns when a lunch falls outside a window you set, keeps rest periods on the clock, and shows days worked per person in the week so a seventh day is visible before it is scheduled. Free up to 10 employees: see the pricing.

Neighbours: Tennessee requires one 30-minute break at six hours and nothing else; Illinois requires 20 minutes at 7.5 hours and a day off in seven; Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Virginia and Missouri have no adult break law. The national picture: break laws in the US.

*Sources: KRS 337.355 (lunch period requirements), KRS 337.365 (rest periods, as amended March 27, 2020), KRS 337.050 (seventh-day overtime); Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet. Rules as in force on September 20, 2026. General information, not legal advice.*