Meal breaks or lunch breaks usually range from 30 minutes to one hour. Their purpose is to allow employees to have a meal that is regularly scheduled during the work day. For a typical daytime job, this is lunch, but this may vary for those with other work hours. It is not uncommon for this break to be unpaid, and for the entire work day from start to finish to be longer than the number of hours paid in order to accommodate this time.
One may feel numb or tired working continuously for long hours without having any breaks. Tiredness and hunger can obviously reduce the productivity and efficiency of an employee. Is it allowed for an employee to take time off from his/her job for a meal break? Certainly yes! A lunch or a meal break is an approved period of time off from work under federal laws. This Federal law, the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act), permits employees to eat or engage in permitted personal activities on short breaks from work.