Nevada break laws: a 30-minute meal at 8 hours, a paid 10-minute rest per 4 hours, and daily overtime for lower earners

The short answer

Nevada regulates both kinds of break, in NRS 608.019:

• Meal period: 30 minutes for an employee who works a continuous period of 8 hours. A break shorter than 30 minutes does not interrupt the continuous period. The meal period can be unpaid if the person is fully relieved.
• Rest period: 10 minutes for each 4 hours worked or major fraction thereof, as close to the middle of each work period as practicable. Paid: the statute says authorized rest periods are counted as hours worked with no deduction from wages.
• No rest period is owed when the total day is under 3.5 hours.
• Exempt: workplaces with only one employee, employees under a collective bargaining agreement, and employers with a Labor Commissioner exemption granted for business necessity.

"Major fraction" means more than half of four hours, so more than two. That gives the table the Labor Commissioner uses:

Hours in the day	Paid 10-minute rest periods
Under 3.5	0
3.5 to 6	1
Over 6 to 10	2
Over 10 to 14	3

What it looks like on a shift

8-hour shift, 10am to 6pm, casino floor or retail: a paid 10-minute break around noon, a 30-minute meal period (the shift reaches 8 continuous hours), and a second paid 10-minute break around 4pm. If the meal period is unpaid, the person is on the clock 7.5 hours.

6-hour shift, 4pm to 10pm, restaurant: two paid 10-minute breaks (6 hours is 4 plus a major fraction). No meal period is required, because the shift never reaches 8 continuous hours. Many employers give one anyway.

5-hour shift, 7am to noon: one paid 10-minute break. Nothing else.

10-hour shift (4x10 schedule): two paid rest periods and a meal period; the third rest period starts at more than 10 hours.

The meal period rule is about continuous hours. A shift of 8 hours with a 30-minute unpaid break in the middle is two blocks of under 8, which is what the rule expects; it does not require a second meal period.

Pay, deductions and the mistakes that get reported

Rest periods are paid. Sending someone off the clock for 10 minutes is a wage deduction the statute forbids, and it also removes minutes from the week that count toward overtime.

The meal period is unpaid only if the person is relieved of all duties. A cage cashier who stays at the window, a server who keeps a section, a receptionist who "just watches the desk" while eating: paid time, whatever the schedule says.

Nevada's Labor Commissioner handles complaints. The claims that come up most are auto-deducted meal periods on shifts where the person never left the floor, and rest periods that were never scheduled because the day was "only six hours".

The overtime rule that makes Nevada different

Nevada has daily overtime for lower earners (NRS 608.018). An employee who earns less than one and a half times the state minimum wage is owed time and a half for hours over 8 in any 24-hour period, as well as over 40 in a week. The state minimum wage has been $12.00 an hour since July 1, 2024, so the daily rule covers anyone paid under $18.00 an hour: most retail, hospitality and food service staff.

The exception is a schedule of four 10-hour days that the employee has agreed to; then the daily threshold is 10. A 9-hour shift for someone at $15 an hour is one hour of overtime even if the week is 36 hours. Employees at or above $18 an hour get weekly overtime only.

Building it into the schedule

1. Count rest periods from the table, per person, per day. Six hours means two, not one.
2. Write the 30-minute meal period into any shift that reaches 8 continuous hours, with a start time, and make it a clock-out and clock-in.
3. Keep rest periods on the clock. Never a clock-out for 10 minutes.
4. Watch the 8-hour line for anyone under $18 an hour. A shift that runs to 8.5 hours because closing took longer is 30 minutes of daily overtime.
5. Record who was on the floor alone. The one-employee exemption applies to the workplace, not the company.

Squadra writes the breaks inside each shift, shows daily hours per person so the 8-hour line is visible, records the meal period as a clock-out and clock-in, and totals the week against 40. Free up to 10 employees: see the pricing.

For the other states that regulate breaks: break laws in the US. Next door, California has the strictest rules in the country, with a meal break due before the end of the fifth hour and an hour of premium pay per missed break; Arizona and Utah have no adult break law at all.

*Sources: NRS 608.019 (periods for meals and rest) and NRS 608.018 (overtime); Office of the Nevada Labor Commissioner, meal and rest period guidance. Rules as in force on September 20, 2026. General information, not legal advice.*