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  Labor laws in the United States govern employee rights and employer requirements in a given workplace. These laws occur at the federal and state level. Part of labor law applies to whether employers are required to provide breaks for their staff and how they are to do so. While some states have laws requiring employees receive breaks, Indiana generally does not.
  
  

Indiana Law

• According to the Indiana state website "Indiana state law does not generally require employers to provide rest breaks, meal breaks or breaks for other purposes to adult employees." Unless the employee in question is a minor or a nursing mother the federal law applies to any breaks given. There are some special allowances for these two groups in the law.
  
  

Federal Law

• The Department of Labor Code of Federal Regulations says that five minute to 20 minute rest periods "promote the efficiency of the employee and are customarily paid for as working time." While federal law does not require that breaks be given it does say that if the employer chooses to provide a break, they must pay for breaks less than 20 minutes. If they provide a meal period they do not have to be paid as long as the employee is free to spend that time however they wish.
  
  

Child Labor Law

• Indiana law addresses any employers who have minors under 18-years-old working for them. In this case, the workplace needs to provide either one or two rest periods totaling 30 minutes if the underage employee is working six or more hours per shift. Any breaks given to minors have to be documented by the employer through a break log.
  
  

Union Workers

• Another group that may have different requirements are union workers. Whether union workers need to be given breaks will be specified in the union regulations or in their contract. These regulations would be followed instead of either the federal or state law since in this case neither requires a break be given.
  
  

Nursing Women

• Breastfeeding is considered beneficial for the mother and the child so there is a provision in the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requiring employers to give their nursing female employees break time to expel milk. They do not have to compensate the employee but they do need to provide a private place for the employee to take this break. Indiana Code also has similar stipulations about breaks given for nursing mothers. In addition to a "reasonable paid break time" for employees who are nursing, the employer also has to provide a refrigerator for storing milk.