• Kentucky employment laws require employees be provided with adequate time to eat.Empty Cafeteria image by Ryan LeBaron from Fotolia.com
  
  As in every state, there are employment laws in Kentucky specific to Kentucky employers and employees. Kentucky employment laws protect both parties in regard to rest periods and lunch periods, minimum wages, tipped employees and overtime, among many other areas.
  
  

Rest Periods

• Every employee shall be granted a rest period of at least ten minutes for every four hours worked. If the employee chooses to forgo this ten-minute rest period, that is his choice. However by Kentucky employment law, employers are required to provide this rest period.
  
  

Lunch Periods

• Employers are required to provide employees with a reasonable period of time for a meal. This period of time shall not be given sooner than three hours after the employee begins her shift or more than five hours before the employee's shift ends.
  
  

Minimum Wage

• As of July 1, 2009, the minimum wage in Kentucky is $7.25 per hour. Tipped employees may be paid differently regarding minimum wage. Employers may pay as little as $2.13 per hour to tipped employees. This law is designed with the understanding that tipped employees make up the difference and in some cases, more than the difference, through their tips.
  
  

Overtime

• According to Kentucky employment laws, any employee who works more than 40 hours in one work week must be compensated for their time. Employees are not necessarily paid overtime pay for more than eight hours in one day because occasionally employees will work over eight hours to leave early one day later in the week. Compensation for overtime must be one-and-a-half times the regular hourly wage. The Kentucky overtime employment laws include any time worked on the seventh day of the work week.
  
  

Record Keeping Requirements

• By law, Kentucky employers must make, keep and obtain records about their employees, including the following information: name, address, hours worked and regular hourly rate of pay, total wages paid each week and date of payment. These records must be maintained for at least one year from date of entry.
  
  

Labor Law Poster Requirements

• Employers are required to post Kentucky labor law posters somewhere in the company where employees have access to them. Common places for posting these are break rooms, kitchens and the human resources offices. Kentucky employment law requires employers to post the following posters: discrimination notice, unemployment insurance, OSHA Health and Safety Protection, child labor, workers' compensation and wage discrimination.