California has specific laws around meal breaks, and Elevate follows these to ensure you are protected, given proper rest, and paid accurately for your time. These guidelines help create a positive experience for everyone working at California events.
Please review the expectations below before working any California shift.
When You Must Take a Meal Break
- If your shift is more than 5 hours, you must take a 30-minute, duty-free meal break.
- Your first meal break must start before the end of your 5th hour of work.
- Example:
If your shift begins at 10:00 AM, your meal break must start no later than 2:59 PM.
- Example:
- A “duty-free” meal break means you are completely off-duty and not working, assisting guests, or communicating with Elevate, the client, or the team.
- Even if a client or Lead suggests you stay on the floor, California law requires you to step away and take the break.
Requirement for a Second Meal Break
- If you work more than 10 hours in a day, a second 30-minute, duty-free meal break is required.
- This second meal break must begin before the end of your 10th hour of work.
- Elevate does not allow waivers of the second meal break, even though California law permits them in certain limited cases. If you work 10 hours or more, you must take both meal breaks.
Your Responsibility: Clocking In & Out
It is the BA’s responsibility to accurately clock the following:
- Clock In at the start of your shift
- Meal Break Out when starting your 30-minute meal break
- Meal Break In when returning from your meal break
- Clock Out at the end of your shift
Accurate timekeeping ensures your hours and any meal premiums are calculated correctly. Missing or inaccurate clocking can delay pay and impact compliance.
Repeated failures to properly clock in/out or to take required meal breaks may result in removal from future event bookings.
How to Record Your Meal Break
Your meal break must be documented each time.
- Paid or unpaid: You must record your meal break directly in the 1CRM mobile app.
- On rare occasions, a designated Team Lead may use a paper meal log. If so, you will write your time out, time back in, and sign the log.
Meal Break Premiums (Extra Pay)
If a proper meal break is not taken, you may be owed an additional one hour of pay for that day. This is called a meal premium.
A meal premium is triggered when:
- No meal break was taken
- The break started late
- The break was less than 30 minutes
- The break was interrupted, or you were not truly off-duty
Our system will automatically add the meal premium if no meal break is recorded. If you did take a full, timely, duty-free break, Staffing may remove the premium once verified.
Exceptions
There are only a few exceptions:
- If your shift is 6 hours or less, you may choose to waive your first meal break. This must be voluntary, agreed upon in advance, and the waiver must be completed before your shift begins.
- Elevate does not allow on-duty meal breaks.
- Elevate does not permit waiving the second meal break under any circumstances.
Why This Matters
Following these guidelines ensures you receive the required rest, are paid correctly for your time, and support a fair and compliant work environment under California law.
If you have a shift longer than 5 hours and you are not assigned a meal break, or you are ever prevented from taking a meal break, please contact HR immediately at hr@weareelevate.global.