Oregon meal and rest break law: 30 minutes from 6 hours, 10 minutes per 4-hour segment, and the statewide scheduling law

The short answer

Oregon requires a meal period and paid rest breaks, with a timing rule that depends on shift length, under OAR 839-020-0050:

• Meal period: at least 30 minutes, relieved of all duties, for any work period of 6 hours or more. On a shift of at least 6 but less than 7 hours it must be taken after the second hour and before the start of the fifth; on a shift of more than 7 hours, after the third hour and before the start of the sixth. Unpaid if the employee is fully relieved, paid in full if they work through it.
• Rest break: a paid rest period of at least 10 minutes for every 4-hour segment or major part of it (2 hours and 1 minute through 4 hours), taken as close to the middle of the segment as possible, and separate from the meal period.
• Very long shifts: a second meal period from 14 hours.

The Bureau of Labor and Industries publishes the rule and a table on oregon.gov/boli. Minors have their own standards.

The BOLI table, by shift length

Shift length	Rest breaks	Meal periods
2 hours or less	0	0
2 h 01 to 5 h 59	1	0
6 hours	1	1
6 h 01 to 10 hours	2	1
10 h 01 to 13 h 59	3	1
14 hours	3	2

The "major part" rule is what catches people. A 2.5-hour shift is more than half of a 4-hour segment, so it earns a rest break. An 8.5-hour day with a 30-minute unpaid meal is two work segments of 4 hours each, so two rest breaks, one in the middle of each.

When the meal period can be skipped, and what it costs

Oregon allows an employee to work through the meal period only in narrow cases: unforeseeable equipment failure or emergencies, a duty-free meal period being genuinely impracticable in the type of work (with a written notice to the employee), a signed waiver for tipped food and beverage servers, or a collective bargaining agreement. Outside those, the meal period must be provided, and if the employee performs any duty during it, the whole 30 minutes is paid.

A meal period that is late, short or worked through is a wage claim with penalty wages attached. Unlike California, there is no fixed one-hour premium, but the unpaid time plus penalties under Oregon wage law add up quickly across a team.

Oregon's statewide predictive scheduling law

Oregon is the only state with a statewide scheduling law (ORS 653.412 and following). It applies to retail, hospitality and food service employers with 500 or more employees worldwide. For them: a written good-faith estimate of hours at hiring, the work schedule posted 14 days in advance, additional pay for employer-initiated changes after posting, a right to rest of 10 hours between shifts unless the employee consents (with extra pay for a clopening), and a voluntary standby list for extra hours.

Smaller businesses are not covered. But the habit the law imposes, two weeks of notice and no clopenings without consent, is exactly what reduces call-outs and turnover in a store of any size. The general picture is in fair workweek laws.

Building an Oregon schedule that holds

1. Place the meal period in the window. For a 7-hour shift starting at 9:00, the meal starts between 11:00 and 13:00; for an 8-hour shift, between 12:00 and 14:00. Write it into the shift.
2. Anchor the rest breaks in the middle of each segment, two on a standard day. They stay on the clock.
3. Watch the 2-hour-and-1-minute line. A short shift that is extended past 2 hours earns a rest break; a 6-hour shift extended past 6 hours earns a second one.
4. Keep the records. Clock-out and clock-in for unpaid meals; a paid flag when someone had to work through, so payroll pays it.

Squadra shows the break inside each shift, records unpaid meal periods as a clock-out and clock-in, and displays each person's day length so the segment count is visible before the week is published. Free up to 10 employees: see the pricing.

For the federal floor and the other states: break laws in the US. The neighbor to the north, Washington, has a similar rest rule with a stricter three-hour limit; California adds a premium hour per missed break.