Rhode Island meal break and Sunday pay rules

Does Rhode Island require a meal break? Yes: 20 minutes within a 6-hour shift and 30 minutes with an 8-hour shift, unpaid, with exceptions for health care facilities and shifts under 3 employees (R.I. Gen. Laws 28-3-14).

Meal breaks: R.I. Gen. Laws 28-3-14

"All employees are entitled to a twenty-minute (20) mealtime within a six-hour (6) work shift, and a thirty-minute (30) mealtime with an eight-hour (8) work shift. An employer shall not be required to compensate an employee for this mealtime."

It does not apply to licensed health care facilities or to "An employer who employs less than three (3) people on any shift at the worksite."

Sunday and holiday pay: R.I. Gen. Laws 25-3-3

"Work performed by employees on Sundays and holidays must be paid for at least one and one-half (1 1/2) times the normal rate of pay for the work performed"

Refusing Sunday or holiday work is not grounds for discharge or other penalty. The section lists exemptions, including manufacturers that operate seven continuous days a week, round-the-clock limousine and taxi companies, and car rental desks at T.F. Green airport. Retail stores have their own rule in R.I. Gen. Laws 5-23-2, which this page does not cover yet.

This premium is a day rule, not an hours rule, so our calculators do not apply it. Those hours are paid at 1.5 times the normal rate; the time and a half calculator works out the pay.

Not legal, tax or payroll advice. Read on October 27, 2026 from the General Assembly's statute pages through Internet Archive copies (28-3-14 dated October 13, 2026, 25-3-3 dated April 30, 2025), because the live site did not answer our connection.