Do you pay staff/do you get paid for lunch?

Do you pay hourly staff for lunch? Or, if you’re hourly staff, do you get paid for lunch?

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I started at a new firm a couple months ago as a senior attorney managing a satellite office. I just learned that staff have to clock out and don’t get paid for their 30 min. lunch break.

I feel like they should get paid during lunch. They bust ass all morning, and 30 minutes only gives them time to eat lunch in order to continue busting said ass.

OTOH, it adds up. Napkin math puts it around $800K/year in wages with ~200 staff members. That doesn’t consider employer taxes on those hours.

My old firm paid staff for their lunch break, but it was a considerably smaller firm. I have neither the authority nor the pull to consider changing the policy here, but I’m curious about how common this is.