---
type: "Bill"
title: "Employees: meal periods."
description: "Existing law generally prohibits an employer from employing an employee for a work period of more than 5 hours per day without providing the employee with a meal period of not less than 30 minutes. Existing law creates exceptions from this prohibition for employees in specified occupations, including employees of an electrical corporation, a gas corporation, or a local publicly owned electric utility covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement meeting certain conditions. Existing law charges the Labor Commissioner with enforcement of these provisions."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20252026"
identifier: "SB 693"
citation: "California SB 693 (20252026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Employees", "mealperiods"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Cortese"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 20
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2025-02-21"
last_action: "2025-07-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/93f2c6ab-f342-4ac1-90ef-018eb3655f20"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB693"
source_hash: "77386ca33487e55e0331608fb421a4cd5e5c6e57c5808c69efa4f75e2359d216"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California SB 693 (20252026) — Employees: meal periods.

Existing law generally prohibits an employer from employing an employee for a work period of more than 5 hours per day without providing the employee with a meal period of not less than 30 minutes. Existing law creates exceptions from this prohibition for employees in specified occupations, including employees of an electrical corporation, a gas corporation, or a local publicly owned electric utility covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement meeting certain conditions. Existing law charges the Labor Commissioner with enforcement of these provisions.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/21/25 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB693&version=20250SB69399INT)
2. **07/30/25 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB693&version=20250SB69397CHP)
3. **SB693** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB693)
4. **07/18/25 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB693&version=20250SB69398ENR)

## Votes

- Consent Calendar 2nd — **34–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **15–0** (pass) · lower
- SB 693 Cortese Consent Calendar Second Day — **75–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Cortese — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2025-02-21** Introduced. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction`
- **2025-02-24** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 24.
- **2025-02-24** Read first time. `reading-1`
- **2025-03-05** Referred to Com. on L., P.E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2025-04-11** Set for hearing April 30.
- **2025-04-30** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To consent calendar. (Ayes 5. Noes 0. Page 967.) (April 30). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2025-05-02** Set for hearing May 12.
- **2025-05-12** From committee: Be ordered to second reading pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to consent calendar. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2025-05-13** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2025-05-15** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 34. Noes 0. Page 1091.) Ordered to the Assembly. `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2025-05-15** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2025-05-29** Referred to Com. on L. & E. `referral-committee`
- **2025-06-26** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To consent calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 25). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2025-07-09** From committee: Do pass. Ordered to consent calendar. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (July 9). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-07-10** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2025-07-17** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 2595.) Ordered to the Senate. `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2025-07-17** In Senate. Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
- **2025-07-25** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 11 a.m.
- **2025-07-30** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2025-07-30** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 95, Statutes of 2025. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/93f2c6ab-f342-4ac1-90ef-018eb3655f20`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).