Category · 2 topics
Work & Pay Law by State
What your employer owes you on the clock and on the way out: the deadline for a final paycheck after you quit or are fired, and the meal and rest breaks state law actually requires.
Pick a topic
Each topic opens a state-by-state hub; every figure inside is cited to the official statute.
Where federal law stops and state law starts
People assume federal law handles both of these topics. It mostly does not. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act never says when a final paycheck is due, and it does not require meal or rest breaks for adult workers at all. It only says that short breaks, if an employer chooses to give them, must be paid. Everything stronger than that comes from the states, which is why the two answers change completely at a state line.
For the final paycheck, most states set one deadline if you were fired and a different one if you quit, ranging from the same day to the next regular payday, and many add a penalty (often called waiting time pay) for each day the employer runs late. For meal and rest breaks, a minority of states mandate them, with specific minutes after specific hours worked and premium pay when a required break is skipped; the rest are silent, and their pages here say so plainly. Both topics reward checking your exact state rather than trusting workplace folklore.