Can exempt employees be forced to take lunch breaks?

I am in California. Can you tell me the law regarding lunch breaks?
I was told that an employee is required to take a half an hour unpaid break after six hours. Is this true for exempt employees? Can an employee work eight hours straight in order to go home an hour earlier than an employee that takes an hour (unpaid) lunch break at noon?

Rita Risser's response:

Let's be clear we are talking about California law and exempt (salaried) employees. Exempt employees are exempt from the privileges of the law, including breaks, lunch and overtime. This means that you don't have to take lunch; conversely, your employer technically could refuse to give you a lunch break.

Theoretically, your employer should not be keeping track of who works how long among the exempts. Ideally, you are getting your job done, whether it takes 30 hours or 60.

There is another potential issue here, however. If the employer wants exempt employees to be present during the core hours of the day (which could be defined as 8 to 5 or 7:30 to 4:30 or whatever) the employer could insist that even if you don't take a lunch break, you still must remain at work. Even if this means you are working nine hours a day, you are not entitled to overtime.

As a practical matter, the reason the Legislature in its infinite wisdom, granted lunch breaks was due to the recognition that people work better, feel better and remain healthier longer when they take task breaks throughout the day. Taking a break could be the best use of your time.

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