Help Wanted: Companies and employees' hours
In construction, as with any other job, employers must grant employees a meal break of 30 minutes if they work six hours a day, but they do not have to pay for it unless they make employees work. (July 14, 2009) Credit: AFP/Getty Images
Employers don't have to give employees any other breaks, but many do. If those breaks are 20 minutes or less, labor laws say companies shouldn't deduct employees' pay for that time.
As to your last question, if you are a nonexempt worker -- which generally means hourly -- then when you work more than 40 hours a week your company must pay you overtime for those extra hours. But if the company asks you to come in later in the day or leave earlier in the same workweek to keep you from surpassing the 40-hour watermark, that is legal, even though it might be inconvenient.
If you are fired after your big announcement, your company doesn't have to pay you wages for those weeks you planned to stay or for vacation time you might have earned during that period. You could be eligible for unemployment benefits, though. So if you're let go, apply right away.
For more on meal breaks and paid-time off under state labor laws, go to http://tinyurl.com/cxamedz.
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