Yes. Unlike federal law, Oregon requires employers to provide both rest breaks and meal periods to most workers. Under the rules adopted by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), employees are generally entitled to a paid 10-minute rest break for every four-hour segment (or major portion of it) they work, and an unpaid 30-minute meal period when their shift is longer than six hours. These breaks are not optional perks - they are mandated by Oregon administrative rule (OAR 839-020-0050), and most adult employees cannot legally waive them outside of narrow exceptions.
This sets Oregon apart from the federal baseline. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not require employers to provide any meal or rest breaks at all. Under the FLSA, if an employer chooses to offer short breaks of roughly 5 to 20 minutes, those must be paid; bona fide meal periods of 30 minutes or more, where the worker is fully relieved of duty, may be unpaid. Oregon goes much further by affirmatively requiring the breaks in the first place.
Oregon's Rest Break Rule
Oregon requires a paid rest period of at least 10 minutes for every segment of four hours, or major part of four hours, that an employee works. "Major part" generally means more than two hours. The rest break is counted as time worked, so it must be paid, and employees cannot be required to clock out for it.
The rest break schedule generally works like this:
- Less than 2 hours worked: no rest break required
- 2 hours up to 6 hours: one 10-minute rest break
- Over 6 hours up to 10 hours: two rest breaks
- Over 10 hours up to 14 hours: three rest breaks
Rest breaks should be taken, as much as practical, in the middle of each four-hour work segment. The employee must be relieved of all duties during the rest break. Importantly, a rest break and a meal period cannot be combined, and an employer generally cannot add the rest period to the start or end of the shift to let the worker come in late or leave early in place of an actual break.
Oregon's Meal Period Rule
For a work period of more than six hours, Oregon requires an unpaid meal period of at least 30 minutes. During a true meal period, the employee must be completely relieved of all duties. If the worker is not relieved of all duties - for example, eating at a desk while still answering phones or covering a register - the employer must pay the worker for the full 30 minutes.
Timing matters. The meal period generally must be provided after the second hour and before the fifth hour for shifts of seven hours or less. For shifts longer than seven hours, it generally must fall after the third hour and before the sixth hour. The goal is to prevent employers from front-loading or back-loading the meal so the worker grinds through a long stretch without relief.
There are limited circumstances in which an on-duty (paid) meal period is allowed, such as when the nature of the work prevents the employee from being relieved of all duties. Oregon also has a separate provision allowing employees to request to skip or shorten a meal period in certain situations, but employers cannot unilaterally deny meal periods simply for convenience or staffing reasons.
Are Breaks Paid?
The short answer: rest breaks are paid, meal periods are unpaid - with an important caveat. Because rest breaks count as hours worked, deducting them from pay is unlawful. Meal periods may be unpaid only when the employee is genuinely off duty for the full 30 minutes. The moment work duties bleed into the meal period, that time becomes compensable and must be paid, and it may also count toward overtime.
Speaking of overtime: Oregon follows the federal weekly-40 standard, requiring 1.5 times the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek (manufacturing and certain other industries have additional daily overtime rules). If denied breaks push your compensable hours over 40, the unpaid time can carry overtime implications too.