Entering a day
- Choose a penalty schedule. The preset fills the amounts field, one dollar amount per half hour in order.
- Enter the call time, or the time the previous meal ended if this is a second meal.
- Enter the time the meal was called.
- Set the hours allowed before a meal. The default is six.
- Enter how many people are on that schedule. Run crew and cast separately, since they use different amounts.
Editing the amounts field switches the dropdown to Custom schedule. The last amount you type repeats for every later half hour, so 7.5, 10, 12.5, 12.5, 25 covers any length of delay.
How the penalty is counted
- Minutes to meal = meal time − call time (if the meal time is earlier on the clock, the tool assumes it crossed midnight and adds 24 hours)
- Minutes over = minutes to meal − allowed hours × 60
- Units = minutes over ÷ 30, rounded up
- Per person = the sum of the first N amounts, repeating the last one as needed
- Total = per person × people
Worked example with the defaults
The tool opens on the IATSE outside-studio schedule, a 7:00 AM call, lunch called at 1:40 PM, a six-hour limit, and 45 people.
- 7:00 AM to 1:40 PM is 400 minutes
- The limit is 360 minutes, so lunch is 40 minutes late
- 40 ÷ 30 = 1.33, rounded up to 2 units
- Per person: $7.50 + $10.00 = $17.50
- Crew: 45 × $17.50 = $787.50
The result cards round to whole dollars, so the total displays as $788 and the per-person figure as $18, with the exact amounts ($7.50 + $10.00) listed underneath.
Push lunch to 3:05 PM and it's 125 minutes over, which is five units: $7.50 + $10 + $12.50 + $12.50 + $25 = $67.50 a person, or $3,037.50 for the same 45 people. The fifth unit alone is $25 a person, $1,125 across that crew, and it starts at the two-hour mark.
The schedules in the presets
| Preset | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th and later |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IATSE West Coast, outside the studio | $7.50 | $10.00 | $12.50 | $12.50 | $25.00 |
| IATSE West Coast, at the studio | $8.50 | $11.50 | $13.50 | $13.50 | $25.00 |
| SAG-AFTRA principal performers | $25 | $35 | $50 | $50 | $75 |
The IATSE amounts match the Local 80 summary, which lists the $25 amount for the fifth through nineteenth penalty. SAG-AFTRA's answer on television meal periods lists $25 for the first half hour or fraction, $35 for the second, and $50 for each half hour after that. The preset's fifth amount, $75, isn't on that page. The meal penalty entry ties it to a new tier for principal performers in the 2026 TV/Theatrical agreement, so confirm the amount and its effective date in your contract digest before you budget with it.
What it doesn't model
- Grace. Local 80 describes a 12-minute grace period that can be called for production efficiency but not scheduled or used every day.
- The weekly escalation. Local 80 notes that a crew member with 20 or more meal penalties in a week is owed one hour of pay at their prevailing rate for each half hour of delay. The tool uses flat amounts only.
- Rolling meals. If departments broke at different times, run each group separately with its own meal time.
- Non-deductible breakfast rules beyond moving the start time. Whether an NDB resets the clock, and how long it can be, depends on the agreement.
- Low budget and non-union agreements, which may use different amounts. Type them as a custom schedule.
- State meal break law for non-union crew. California's rules are different from union penalties and are covered in meal penalties explained.
Logging the cost
Meal penalties are a daily hot cost and go on the hot cost report the next morning, then into the labor accounts. For the rules themselves, including how the six-hour clock starts, see the meal penalty glossary entry. Performer meal times are recorded on the Exhibit G, and the first assistant director is the person who calls lunch.