Texas break laws: no state requirement, so the federal rules and your own policy decide

The short answer

Texas has no state law requiring meal or rest breaks for adult employees in the private sector. The Texas Workforce Commission says so plainly: breaks are a matter of employer policy or agreement. What applies in Texas is the federal rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and it is about pay, not entitlement:

• Short breaks of 5 to 20 minutes, if you give them, are paid working time and count toward overtime (29 CFR 785.18).
• Meal periods of 30 minutes or more can be unpaid, but only if the employee is completely relieved of duty. Someone eating at the register is working (29 CFR 785.19).
• Nursing mothers are entitled to reasonable break time and a private, non-bathroom space to express milk for one year after the child's birth, under the federal PUMP Act.

So a Texas employer can schedule an 8-hour shift with no break at all and be within the law. Whether that is a good idea is a different question, and the answer from any store or restaurant manager is no.

What "no law" changes in practice

Your policy is the rule. Once the handbook says "30-minute unpaid lunch for shifts over 6 hours", that is what payroll must apply, consistently. The most common Texas wage claim on breaks is not a missing break, it is a deducted break that was never taken.

The deduction test is federal and strict. An unpaid meal period is unpaid only if the person was relieved of all duties. A cashier who covers the floor while eating, a cook who answers the ticket printer, a receptionist who stays at the desk: the 30 minutes are paid time, whatever the schedule says. If your team routinely works through lunch, either pay it or change the schedule.

Short breaks stay on the clock. A 10-minute break is paid and cannot be deducted. It also counts toward the 40 hours that trigger overtime. Asking people to clock out for a smoke break of 10 minutes is a violation of the federal rule, not a Texas one.

Minors. Texas child labor law limits the hours of 14 and 15 year olds (no more than 8 hours a day and 48 a week, and not during school hours) but does not add a break requirement. Federal child labor rules for 14 and 15 year olds are stricter on hours during the school year.

Overtime, the rule that does bite in Texas

Texas has no daily overtime and no state overtime law of its own. The FLSA applies: time and a half after 40 hours in the workweek, with paid short breaks counted in. A 45-hour week is 5 hours of overtime regardless of how the hours were spread. The overtime calculator applies it; the time card calculator adds the week from clock-in and clock-out with breaks deducted.

Texas also has no predictive scheduling law and no local ones: schedules can change on short notice without a premium. Which is exactly why the good habits below are worth more here than in a regulated state.

What a good Texas schedule does anyway

1. Plan a 30-minute meal period on every shift longer than 6 hours, and write it into the shift with a start time. It is what most competitors for staff do, and it is what keeps the deduction defensible.
2. Give a paid 10-minute break per 4 hours, on the clock. It costs a sixth of an hour and reduces the mid-afternoon errors at the register.
3. Make people clock out and in for the unpaid meal. It is the only proof that the 30 minutes were actually taken and that payroll was right to deduct them.
4. Publish the schedule two weeks ahead. No law requires it in Texas; turnover does.

Squadra writes the break inside each shift, records unpaid meal periods as a clock-out and clock-in, and shows the week's hours per person so the 40-hour line is visible before it is crossed. Free up to 10 employees: see the pricing.

For the states that do regulate breaks, and how far apart they are: break laws in the US, with the details for California and New York. Florida is in the same situation as Texas for adults, with one rule for minors: Florida break laws.