New Hampshire has a 5-hour meal-period rule, and Everhour keeps approved timesheets ready for payroll review.
Enter your daily hours and rate to instantly calculate total hours, regular pay, and any overtime — no spreadsheet needed.
The calculator gives you the number — Everhour takes it from there.
One click and you're timing. Start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Everhour.
Set a budget, assign rates, and get alerted before you're over.
Measurement
Track your budget through time or costs
Every report you need — configured your way, always up to date.
Tracked hours flow straight into a polished invoice — no copy-paste, no manual math.
A New Hampshire break-law calculation answers a payroll question: after meals, short breaks, and any work performed during lunch, how many paid hours belong on the timesheet? The answer matters because New Hampshire requires a half-hour lunch or eating period before work exceeds 5 consecutive hours, unless eating while working is feasible and the employer permits it.
Federal law supplies the pay treatment for breaks. The FLSA does not require adult lunch, meal, coffee, or rest breaks, but short rest periods, usually 20 minutes or less, count as hours worked. A meal period is generally unpaid only if the employee is completely relieved from duty for eating. Work performed while eating remains compensable time.
New Hampshire RSA 275:30-a bars an employer from requiring an employee to work more than 5 consecutive hours without a half-hour lunch or eating period unless the statutory eating-while-working exception applies. The exception is narrow: it must be feasible for the employee to eat while performing work, and the employer must permit it.
New Hampshire does not impose a general adult paid rest-break requirement. That absence does not make every break unpaid. Federal rules still control pay treatment when an employer gives breaks. A 10-minute rest break stays in paid hours. A 30-minute meal can be unpaid only when the employee is relieved of duties for the meal period.
Start with total time on site, subtract only actual duty-free meal periods, then multiply paid hours by the hourly rate. For example, a New Hampshire adult employee is on site for 8 hours at $24 per hour, takes one paid 10-minute rest break, and receives a 30-minute duty-free meal period.
The paid rest break stays inside the 8 hours because short rest periods of 20 minutes or less are counted as hours worked. The meal period can be deducted because it lasted 30 minutes and was duty-free. Paid time is 7.5 hours, so straight-time pay is $180. If the employee answered calls during lunch, the 30 minutes would stay paid.
A one-off calculation is enough when you need to check one shift, one meal deduction, or one corrected timecard. It works best when the facts are settled: start time, end time, break length, duty-free status, and whether the employee actually worked through lunch. Keep the New Hampshire 5-hour rule separate from federal paid-time treatment.
A managed workflow becomes necessary when managers approve weekly hours, payroll needs a clean handoff, or meal deductions repeat across a team. Everhour Timesheets collect weekly project hours and working hours, let users submit time for approval, and let admins approve, reject, partially approve, and lock time entries before payroll or billing review.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
High Performer
G2
Summer 2026
Best Ease Of Use
Capterra
Summer 2026
Rated in the top time trackers across G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius — with consistent praise for ease of use, integrations, and support.
New Hampshire requires a half-hour lunch or eating period before an employee works more than 5 consecutive hours, unless eating while working is feasible and the employer permits it. That rule is a state requirement for the break itself. Federal law still determines whether the time is paid or unpaid.
A New Hampshire meal period can be unpaid only when it also satisfies the federal bona fide meal-period test. The meal is generally unpaid only if the employee is completely relieved from duty for eating. Active or inactive duties during the meal keep the time in paid hours.
Short rest breaks are paid when an employer provides them. Federal law treats short rest periods, usually 20 minutes or less, as hours worked. New Hampshire does not impose a general adult paid rest-break mandate, but that absence does not remove the federal paid-time rule for short breaks.
An automatic lunch deduction is valid only for actual duty-free meal periods. A timesheet can subtract meal time when the employee received a bona fide meal period. If the employee worked through lunch, answered required messages, covered the counter, or stayed on duty, that time remains compensable hours worked.
Nursing employees have a separate New Hampshire rule. Effective July 1, 2025, employers with 6 or more employees must provide reasonable unpaid break periods, defined as approximately 30 minutes for every 3 hours worked, for expressing milk for one year after the child's birth. Handle that rule separately from ordinary meal-period math.
Everhour Timesheets collect weekly project hours and working hours by person, then let employees submit time for review. Managers can approve, reject, partially approve, and lock submitted time, which gives payroll a controlled record before using break deductions, corrected lunches, or approved weekly totals.
Track approved weekly hours, duty-free meal deductions, and corrected time entries in Everhour Timesheets so payroll and billing review start from locked, reviewable records.
14-day free trial · No credit card · Cancel anytime
