Does my employer have to pay overtime if I work through lunch in Kentucky?

There are three points to this answer.

First, the main point is that the employee must perform compensable work during what is an unpaid lunch break.  Both federal and Kentucky law require that an unpaid meal or lunch break be a true, bona-fide break during which the employee is relieved of significant work duties. 

Second, you have to work more than 40 hours in a workweek for the overtime pay requirement to kick in.

Third, you have to be paid overtime only if you are not exempt or non-exempt from overtime pay requirements. To be exempt from overtime pay requirements, you have to be (a) paid on a salary basis and more than $200 per week, and (b) your job has to fall within one of the categories (learned professional being one example) that is exempt from overtime pay requirements.  

Lexington, Kentucky overtime lawyer Robert Abell represents individuals and employees recover the overtime and wages they'v earned but not been paid; contact him at 859-254-7076.