CT meal break: 30 minutes after 7.5 consecutive hours.
Connecticut requires a 30-minute meal period for workers who work 7.5 or more consecutive hours under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-51ii. The meal break must come at some point after the first 2 hours of work and before the last 2 hours — meaning a worker on a 9-hour shift must get the break sometime in the middle 5 hours. Connecticut does NOT require paid rest breaks during the day (unlike Minnesota's 15 minutes per 4 consecutive hours). The meal break can be unpaid only if the worker is fully relieved of duty for the entire 30 minutes — interrupted meals convert to paid time under federal FLSA pay-status framework.
Meal Break Scheduling + Fully-Relieved Validation
Schedules 30-minute meal breaks for shifts of 7.5+ consecutive hours, positioned in the middle of the shift. Validates fully-relieved status to maintain unpaid classification. Surfaces double-damages exposure on missed breaks.
What those rules do at scheduling and at clock-out.
The hero card configuration: Block on missing meal break, Avoid on interrupted meals, Critical on double damages.
Shifts of 7.5+ consecutive hours require a 30-minute meal period. Schedules without the break fail to save. Break is positioned to come after the first 2 hours and before the last 2 hours of the shift.
A meal period interrupted by work activity converts to paid time under federal FLSA pay-status framework (29 CFR 785.19). Worker attestation captures whether the meal was fully relieved. Interruptions trigger Avoid.
Failure to provide required meal breaks — including converting an unpaid meal to paid time when interrupted — is unpaid wages under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-72. Double damages by default unless narrow good-faith defense established. Class action exposure when patterns affect multiple workers.
Deploy Connecticut meal breaks in your Teambridge.
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30-minute meal at 7.5 hours, positioned in the middle, fully relieved.
Connecticut's meal break framework is narrower than Minnesota (which requires meals at 6 hours from 2026 and adds paid 15-min rest breaks per 4 hours). The single 7.5-hour trigger is operationally simpler.
7.5-hour trigger
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-51ii requires a meal period only when the worker works 7.5 or more consecutive hours. Shifts under 7.5 hours have no statutory meal break requirement. This is more permissive than Minnesota's 6-hour trigger (effective 2026) and less generous than California's 5-hour trigger. Most retail and hospitality shifts in Connecticut land at exactly 7.5 hours specifically to avoid the requirement — a common scheduling pattern that operates within the law.
30-minute minimum length
The meal period must be at least 30 consecutive minutes. Multiple shorter breaks (e.g., two 15-minute periods) do not satisfy the requirement — it must be a single 30-minute period. Workers can voluntarily take longer meals; 30 minutes is the floor.
Teambridge schedules breaks, validates fully-relieved meals, and surfaces missed-break liability.
The 7.5-hour trigger plus mid-shift positioning rule make scheduling templates the durable solution.
30-min unpaid meal scheduled.
Shifts of 7.5+ consecutive hours automatically include a 30-minute unpaid meal break. The break is positioned after the first 2 hours and before the last 2 hours of the shift.
Worker confirms uninterrupted meal.
At meal-period close, worker attests that the period was uninterrupted and fully duty-free. Interruption attestation → period converted to paid time.
Tail-end placements blocked.
Schedules attempting to place the meal break in the last 2 hours of the shift fail to save. The mid-shift positioning is statutorily required.
Missed-break liability tracked.
Missed required breaks accrue exposure. Cumulative running totals shown for double damages liability under § 31-72 with attorney fees overlay.
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