• In Maryland, employers are not required to give lunch breaksfinishing touch image by Galina Barskaya from Fotolia.com
  
  The laws regulating lunch breaks vary from state to state. In a handful of states, such as Colorado, there are laws which require employers to provide lunch breaks. But in the state of Maryland, there is no law requiring employers to provide lunch breaks, unless the employee is under the age of 18.
  
  

Adults

• According to Maryland's Division of Labor and Industry (DLI), employers are not required to give lunch breaks. If the employer does provide a lunch break, the employer does not have to pay wages to an employee if the employee is given a break which lasts longer than 20 minutes, grants the right to leave the worksite, and the employee does not work.
  
  

Minors

• Minors under the age of 18 must receive a lunch break in Marylandportrait of teenager. image by Petr Gnuskin from Fotolia.com
  
  The DLI of Maryland states that if a person is under the age of 18 in the state of Maryland, they are required to receive a 30-minute break for every five hours of work.
  
  

Automatic Pay Reduction

• Maryland's DLI specifies that if an employee's pay is automatically reduced, for example, by a half hour for lunch, but they are unable to take this break without an expectation or reasonable understanding that they must work or be available to work, they must be paid for that half hour. A "reasonable understanding" is a condition where it is generally known, or the employee reasonably believes, that a failure to work or be available to work during their break will result in a negative effect on employment.