How does retail pull off the illegal labor laws

I am at retail ONLY for Xmas and I worked from 8:45 to 5:15 and did not get a break or lunch until 2pm. How is this legal?

they can do what they please. You can argue with them, but it would be to no avail.

claim ( lie through their teeth) "it's just how it worked out" when it's all about getting the maximum amount of time out of you without having to pay for any shitty benefits

during Xmas so I don't expect benefits but it would be nice to not be treated like a slave. I'm Xmas help, ran all of childrens area today with no help and rang up $2500. A Thank You would also been nice!

Can I file a complaint against myself? I own my own store. And I am tired. x(

Just guessing, but the number of employees is a factor in whether breaks are mandatory.

a federated dept store...yes, it's mandatory, but do they care?

Not trying to be difficult about it, but I ran headlong into management about this myself at one of my jobs and ended up reading the labor code for my state from beginning to end because of it. Lots of stuff in there that's not common knowledge.

In OK, for example, the number of employees required before a break is mandatory can be calculated on a *per department* basis if certain conditions exist. That is, the company could have thousands, the individual store hundreds, but if the specific department in that store does not have over a certain number of employees, the break is not mandatory.

Convenience stores all over the country get away with not offering breaks due to conditions like this. I managed (as an hourly employee) a convenience store that was part of a chain once and was required to work minimum ten hour days, five days a week. I was not allowed even to sit down one minute the entire time.

Unless your company or state says so, except for 15 minutes after six hours. Not even a bathroom break. Those are the laws. I was a big box manager for five years, and that's the disgusting truth of it. We got in trouble for giving our workers two good breaks every shit, on the clock, in addition to their lunch hour.

How do you give them a broken shit, and also, change the comma, and you give them 2 breaks for every time they shit on the clock.

it really sucks
http://www.ewin.com/articles/restper.htm