Watch Out Oregon Employers—Anything Less Than a Full 30-Minute Lunch Break Could Lead to Significant Exposure

The Oregon Court of Appeals recently issued a decision with significant implications for businesses with employees in Oregon. In Athena v. Pelican Brewing Co., 345 Or App 172 (2025), the Court held that employees who receive “short” meal periods (anything less than a full 30 minutes) are entitled recover unpaid wages for the entire 30-minute meal period, essentially creating a 30-minute penalty for short meal periods.

The Court also held that employees alleging short meal periods may characterize these violations as standalone wage claims subject to a six-year statute of limitations.

Case Background

Former brewery employees filed a class action complaint alleging violations of Oregon’s wage and hour laws, which require employers to “provide to each employee… a meal period of not less than 30 continuous minutes during which the employee is relieved of all duties.” The employees claim they did not always receive the full 30 minutes. The trial court issued an order in the employees’ favor, but allowed for an interlocutory appeal, which the employer filed.

The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court opinion, holding:

• Short meal periods give rise to unpaid wage claims: An employee who is not completely relieved of their job duties for the entirety of their mandatory meal period has not stopped working for purposes of wage and hour laws, and is therefore entitled to wages for the entire 30-minute period, regardless of how much of the meal period they took.
• Short meal period claims may be brought independently: Employees may recover unpaid wages arising from short meal periods by bringing a wage claim under ORS 653.055.
• Employees have six years to bring meal period claims: Non-compliant meal period claims are subject to a six-year statute of limitations.
• Employees are entitled to penalty wages on top of unpaid wages: Employers who do not provide compliant meal periods are subject to “waiting time” penalties (i.e., failure to pay all wages owed at termination) for up to 30 days in addition to the unpaid wages for the missed meal period.

Real World Damages Add Up Fast

Under the analysis from the Court of Appeals, an employee who takes a 29-minute meal period has not been provided a compliant meal period and is, therefore, entitled to 30 minutes of pay. Each non-compliant meal period subjects the employer to the owed 30 minutes. For example, if an employee who earns $20/hour takes five non-compliant meal periods in a week, then the employer is obligated to pay that employee an additional 150 minutes that week ($50) in “wages.” If that employee then quits or is terminated, and the employer has not paid the owed $50 of wages, the employer is subject to waiting time penalties of 8 hours per day (regardless of how long the employee’s regular shifts were), for up to 30 days ($20 x 8 x 30 = $4,800, plus the $50). Waiting time penalties apply regardless of the amount of underlying unpaid wages.

What Employers Should Do Now

It is clear from the Pelican Brewing opinion that employers must provide employees with meal periods lasting 30 uninterrupted minutes, during which employees are relieved of all duties. Employers should take immediate steps to increase compliance and reduce risk, including:

• Auditing meal and rest break practices to ensure that they are appropriately tracking meal periods, and that there is a system in place to promptly spot and compensate employees who take non-compliant meal periods. This is true regardless of the reason the meal period is less than 30 minutes (i.e., whether the employee chose to clock in early, or was interrupted with a work question during their lunch break).

• Clearly identify compensation for non-compliant meal periods on the employee’s paystub to create a record of payment.

• Have a written policy that sets forth meal and rest break rules consistent with Oregon law, and that informs employees that they are subject to discipline up to and including termination for non-compliance. The best practice is to have a standalone meal and rest break policy (in addition to what’s contained in a handbook) that employees sign each year.

• Train employees and managers about the importance of compliant meal and rest breaks. Keep records of who attended the training and when it occurred.

• Keep and maintain time and pay records—for at least six years—sufficient to establish compliance with Oregon’s meal period and wage payment requirements. This time period is noteworthy because Oregon’s recordkeeping requirements only require employers to maintain time records for not less than two years and payroll records for not less than three years.

• Finally, employers must monitor and consistently discipline employees who fail to take compliant meal periods and managers who do not adequately enforce compliance.

These steps are vital to reducing not only individual employee wage claims but the risk of costly class action litigation.

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