Skip to main content

Pay rule calculation type - California missed meal break premium (US only)

Chris Knight
  • Updated

This article discusses the California missed meal break premium (US only) pay rule calculations as part of Deputy's Pay Rate Builder.

Before you begin, please read about adding and editing pay rule calculations

 

Description

This calculation pay rule aims to support California Missed Meal Break legislation. This pay rule calculation is not available outside of California-based labor laws (USA).

IMPORTANT: Deputy requires the business recalculation setting to be turned on for this calculation type to work correctly. Please read Recalculating approved timesheets.

 

Prerequisite

This pay rule calculation rule requires the use of specific custom timesheet fields to function.

 

Example use case

This rule applies according to the law set out for Missed Meal Breaks in California.

See California Labor Law for more information.

 

Supported rule types

This rule is only available as a shift loading.

This means that it will be paid as an additional payment on top of other calculated hours such as ordinary time and overtime.

 

Outputs

1. Check if the Meal Break Attestation answer is true. If it is, this rule will not return anything.

2. Check how many meal breaks are owed based on the length of the shift and the value of Meal Break Waiver. If number of breaks taken in the shift is greater than or equal to the owed meal breaks,do not return a value.

3. Otherwise, return 1 hour of Missed Meal Break premium.

 

Configurable parameters (standard)

These are the standard fields you can configure in California missed meal break premium pay rule calculation

Name Defines the name of the pay rule
Meal Break Waiver 

Changes how many hours are required to be worked for breaks to trigger. See California Labor Law for more information.
Pay rate

Can be configured as a multiple of the employee’s base rate or as a flat rate:

  • When configured as a multiplier, this pay rate will pay in hours at the employee’s base rate multiplied by the input value.

  • When configured as a flat rate, the user can choose if they would like Hourly or Unit Values:

    • An Hourly value will pay each calculated hour at the set value

    • A unit value will pay each unit at the set value (not available for base pay rules)
Export code Defines if this pay rule should be exported to payroll. If yes, they can also define a code for the rule.
Days of the week this calculation applies

Defines which days of the week this rule applies to.

For example, if Saturday and Sunday are selected, only parts of the timesheet overlapping Saturday and Sunday are calculated with this rule.
Time of the day this calculation applies

Defines which part of the day this rule is applicable to.

By default this is all day. However, it can be used to define a portion of a day (eg. a defined night shift, such as 6pm-6am). If this is done, only those parts of the timesheet overlapping this are calculated.
Public holiday

Select whether this pay rule applies:

  • Always applies (ie. applies whether the day is marked as a public holiday or not)
  • Applies only on days marked as public holiday
  • Does not apply on public holidays (ie. only applies on days not marked as public holidays)

 

Configurable parameters (advanced):

These are the advanced fields you can configure in the California missed meal break premium pay rule calculation

Apply pay rule to unscheduled shifts

Defines how the pay rule interacts with scheduled and unscheduled shifts:

  • If set to unscheduled, this rule will only trigger for unscheduled shifts.
  • If set to scheduled, this rule will only trigger on scheduled shifts.
  • If set to both, it will trigger on all shifts provided other conditions are met.
Pay portion rule

Generally, an hourly rate will be assigned according to the exact hours that are matched, however, it is possible to enforce an hourly rate for a full shift even if it only matches a minor or major portion of that shift.

Deputy recommends using the Exact Hours option in most cases.
Rate type

Categorises the pay rule as Overtime, Ordinary, Penalty or Non-Payable time.

These are used to define time worked for other calculation types (for example, Periodic Overtime counts Ordinary and some penalty hours towards it).
Rate tag

A custom value that can be applied to the timesheets.

Deputy recommends only using this if advised by your implementation consultant.
Areas

Will only apply this rule to areas selected in the drop down.

By default, all areas are selected.
Clock in and out requirements

For this rule to apply, the team member must clock in and clock out within the defined periods.

By default this is midnight to midnight (ie. any time is allowed.)
Custom Timesheet Fields

With this, the rule will only apply if particular values are selected in the custom timesheet field questions.

Note that only List and Boolean questions are available.

Read more at Creating custom timesheet fields for shift questions.
Custom Shift Fields:

This rule will only apply if particular values are selected in the custom shift fields in the schedule.

Note that only List and Boolean questions are available.

Read more at: Creating custom shift fields

Custom Employee Fields

(Enterprise Accounts Only)

This rule will only apply if particular values are selected in the employee’s custom fields (for example, job position).

Note that only List and Boolean fields are available. Read more about setting up employee fields.

This is an Enterprise plan only feature.

 

Related articles