The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently affirmed that Wisconsin wage and hour law does not permit employees to game the system with respect to full and free meal breaks.
Wisconsin, like many other states, does not require employers to pay employees for legitimate meal breaks. But, there are a few strings attached. Meal periods may be non-compensable for non-exempt employees only so long as: (1) the meal period is actually a meal period and not a rest break, coffee break, or snack break; (2) the meal period is thirty minutes or longer; (3) the employee is completely relieved of their duties; and (4) the employee is permitted to leave the company premises. (Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers need not allow their employees to leave the work premises, and sometimes a meal break of 20 minutes is sufficient to maintain a non-compensable meal period.)
In wage and hour claims governed by Wisconsin law, employees have often argued that any break shorter than thirty minutes must be compensated in its entirety, even when the employer allowed the employee to take thirty minutes but the employee — on their own — decided to cut their meal break a little short. In the recent Wirth v. RLJ Dental opinion (issued on January 31, 2023), the Seventh Circuit rejected this argument, holding that Wisconsin’s regulations “focus[] on what the employer provided, not what the employee elected.”
The employer in Wirth, RLJ Dental, provided its office...
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