Rest break calculator

One break, once the day is long enough

Workers over 18 are usually entitled to three different rests: a break during the day, a daily rest between working days, and a weekly rest. This calculator starts with the break during the day, because that is the one people mix up with a lunch hour they already give. The adult rule on GOV.UK is one uninterrupted 20-minute rest break if they work more than six hours a day. Six hours exactly is not over the line. Six hours and a few minutes is. The break can be a tea break or a lunch break. The contract decides whether it is paid. The regulations do not require it to be paid.

It is one break, not a fresh 20 minutes every time another six hours pass. A 12-hour close is still one 20-minute statutory break under the basic rule. A contract, a workforce agreement or a collective agreement can set a longer break, or can set the terms of it. Where an agreement sets the duration, that agreement is what you follow, as long as it meets the regulations. This page always shows 20 minutes once the day is over six hours. If your agreement says 30, the legal floor is not a reason to cut the break. Give them the agreement.

The break is taken in one go, somewhere in the middle of the day. It is not a late start and it is not an early finish. The person can spend it away from the workstation. If you call them back before it has finished, that interruption means it has not counted. Smoking breaks are not a separate right. None of this is a reason to skip the break because the shop was busy. The busy day is the reason the rule exists.

Daily rest and weekly rest are different clocks

Daily rest for an adult is 11 hours between working days. Finish at 8pm and the next start is 7am, in the GOV.UK example. A close that ends at 11pm and an open that starts at 7am is 8 hours, which is short of 11. Weekly rest is an uninterrupted 24 hours without work each week, or an uninterrupted 48 hours each fortnight. You do not have to give both the 24 and the 48. One of those patterns meets the usual rule.

Those rests are not subtracted from the shift length on this page. The 20 minutes is the in-day break. The 11 hours is the gap before the next shift. The 24 hours is the gap in the week. A rota can fail the daily rest even when every single shift shows a 20-minute break. Check the joins between shifts, not only the length of one tile.

Some workers get compensatory rest instead, where an exception applies. GOV.UK names shift workers as an example of people who can be entitled to compensatory rest rather than the break at the usual time. Young workers can miss a daily rest or an in-day break only for an exceptional event, such as an accident, and only where no adult can do the work and it is temporary and immediate. The missed rest is then owed, and for a young worker it has to be taken within the following three weeks. This calculator does not decide that a shift is one of those exceptions. It shows the usual entitlement. If you are relying on an exception, read the GOV.UK page before you drop the break.

Young workers

A young worker here means someone above school-leaving age and under 18. The break is 30 minutes if they work more than 4.5 hours, and it should be one continuous break where that is possible. Daily rest is 12 hours. Weekly rest is 48 hours. There is no fortnight alternative in that usual rule. Hours worked for more than one employer on the same day are added together before you apply the 4.5-hour test. If you only know your own shift, you do not yet know the day.

The maximum weekly working hours rules are separate. A young worker cannot opt out of the limit. The usual cap is 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week, and it is not averaged over a longer period the way an adult's 48-hour week can be. If the hours you enter are over 8, the page says so. It still shows the 30-minute break, because a too-long day does not remove the break. It also does not make the day lawful. Children who are still of compulsory school age are outside this calculator. Their rules are different, and a 15-year-old in year 11 is not automatically a young worker for the whole year.

What this does not measure

Night work has its own limit: a night worker's normal hours should not exceed an average of 8 hours in each 24, and they should be offered a free health assessment before they start night work and at regular intervals. Night time, unless a different agreement applies, is 11pm to 6am. A night worker is someone who regularly works at least three hours of their daily working time during night time. This page will count a night shift's length for the rest-break rule. It will not decide whether someone is a night worker, and it will not average their nights.

Drivers of lorries and coaches have different rest rules. So do some other jobs listed on GOV.UK. If the person is in one of those groups, do not use this 20-minute figure as their entitlement. The page also does not know the contract. If the contract gives 30 paid minutes on every shift over five hours, that contract is more generous than the statute, and the statute does not cancel it.

Where the break sits in Shiftbrook

A shift has a break field, in minutes, for the unpaid break you expect. The work hours calculator subtracts the minutes you type. It does not look up the statutory 20. Saving a rota can warn when the week misses 11 hours between shifts, the weekly rest, or the 48-hour average. The warning is a warning. It does not block the save, and it does not insert a break the manager did not ask for. Publishing the week does not tell the team that the break was legally enough.

Clock-in records the punch against the site pin. It does not time the lunch. If the break was missed, the timesheet is where the hours are corrected before a manager approves them. Approved hours download as a CSV. The product does not calculate pay, so a paid break and an unpaid break are a payroll question after the hours are agreed. Use this page to see the usual statutory break for one day's length. Then look at the actual week.

An adult shift of exactly six hours

1. Worker: adult. Working hours in the day: 6.
2. Daily working time is not more than six hours, so the statutory in-day break is none.
3. Daily rest is still 11 hours before the next shift. Weekly rest is still 24 hours, or 48 hours a fortnight.

An adult close of twelve hours

1. Worker: adult. Working hours: 12.
2. The in-day break is 20 minutes, not 40. The rule does not repeat every six hours.
3. A contract can give more. This page will not raise the 20 on its own.

A young worker on a five-hour shift

1. Worker: young worker. Working hours: 5.
2. Five is more than 4.5, so the break is 30 minutes. Daily rest is 12 hours. Weekly rest is 48 hours.
3. Five hours is inside the usual 8-hour day. Add any hours they work for someone else before you rely on that.