Walking to lunch on break? That may be the employee’s time, not the company’s

In early September, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued Opinion Letter FLSA2026-11, addressing a question many employers with large or sprawling worksites have faced: Does mandatory walk time to a designated break area turn an unpaid meal period into compensable work time? The short answer is no—so long as the remaining break time is still long enough for employees to eat a regular meal.

Details

A security therapy aide at a detention facility was required to walk three to seven minutes each way to a break area, reducing a 60-minute unpaid lunch to roughly 46–54 minutes of actual sitting time. The WHD concluded the break remained a bona fide, noncompensable meal period under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) because the employee was fully relieved from duty during the break, and the remaining time far exceeded the 30-minute threshold that is “ordinarily sufficient” under 29 C.F.R. § 785.19. Importantly, the WHD reaffirmed that most federal circuit courts of appeals apply a “predominant benefit” test, not a “complete relief from duty” standard—meaning that incidental restrictions, like a short walk, don’t automatically convert a meal period into paid time.