Time Card & Work Hours Calculator

How to calculate hours worked on a time card

A time card total is the time between clocking in and clocking out, minus any unpaid break, added up for every day in the pay period. The calculator above does each step for you, but here is the same math by hand so you can check a paycheck yourself.

1. Find the time worked for each shift. Subtract the clock in time from the clock out time. 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM is 8 hours 30 minutes.
2. Take out the unpaid meal break. A 30 minute lunch turns 8:30 into 8:00.
3. Add up the days. Five days of 8:00 make 40:00 for the week.
4. Convert to decimal hours for payroll. Divide the leftover minutes by 60. 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75 hours.
5. Split regular and overtime hours, then multiply each by its pay rate.

Worked example

Monday to Thursday you work 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM with a 30 minute lunch. Friday you stay until 6:15 PM. Each of the first four days is 8.00 hours. Friday is 9 hours 45 minutes minus 30 minutes, or 9.25 hours. The week adds up to 41.25 hours, so 40 hours are regular time and 1.25 hours are overtime.

At $20.00 an hour that is 40 × $20.00 = $800.00 regular pay plus 1.25 × $30.00 = $37.50 overtime, for $837.50 gross pay before taxes.

How do you convert minutes to decimal hours?

Payroll systems store hours as decimals, so 30 minutes is written as 0.50 and 15 minutes as 0.25. To convert, divide the minutes by 60 and round to two places. This is why a time card that reads 7:45 shows up on a pay stub as 7.75 hours, and why 7.45 hours is actually 7 hours 27 minutes.

Is a lunch break paid or unpaid?

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), short rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes count as hours worked and must be paid. A real meal period, usually 30 minutes or more, can be unpaid when you are completely relieved of duty. If you eat at your desk while answering the phone, that time is work time.

That is why the card has a separate Lunch column. Enter only unpaid meal time there. Paid coffee breaks stay inside your clock in and clock out times. If your employer has you clock out and back in for lunch, tap + in/out on that day and enter both pairs of times instead of a lunch.

Some states also require meal breaks. California, for example, requires a 30 minute meal period for a work period of more than five hours, with a second meal period after ten hours.

How is overtime calculated on a time card?

Federal law requires overtime pay of at least one and a half times the regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. A workweek is any fixed, recurring period of seven consecutive days that your employer sets, such as Sunday to Saturday. Federal law has no daily overtime, so a single 10 hour day does not earn overtime by itself.

Each workweek stands alone, even when you are paid every two weeks. If you work 45 hours in week one and 35 hours in week two, the pay period totals 80 hours but you are still owed 5 hours of overtime for week one. Choose 2 weeks above and the calculator works out overtime for each week separately.

California daily overtime

California adds daily rules on top of the weekly one:

• Over 8 hours in a workday, up to 12 hours: 1.5 × the regular rate.
• Over 12 hours in a workday: 2 × the regular rate (double time).
• On the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek: the first 8 hours at 1.5 ×, any time beyond 8 hours at 2 ×.
• Over 40 regular hours in a workweek: 1.5 ×.

Choose California under Overtime to apply these. Hours already paid as daily overtime are not counted again toward the 40 hour weekly limit. If you already know your weekly hours, the overtime calculator works out time and a half and double time pay from the totals, including salaried pay, shift differentials and bonuses.

A few other states also have daily overtime rules. Alaska pays overtime after 8 hours in a day for most employers with four or more employees. Nevada pays overtime after 8 hours in a 24 hour period for employees earning less than one and a half times the minimum wage. Colorado pays overtime after 12 hours in a workday. Salaried exempt employees are not owed overtime under these rules.

What are time clock rounding rules?

The Department of Labor allows employers to round clock in and clock out times to the nearest 5 minutes, the nearest tenth of an hour (6 minutes) or the nearest quarter hour (15 minutes), as long as the rounding averages out and does not always favor the employer. Quarter hour rounding is often called the 7 minute rule: 1 to 7 minutes past the quarter round down, 8 to 14 minutes round up. Clocking in at 8:07 counts as 8:00, while 8:08 counts as 8:15.

If your employer rounds punches, choose the same option under Rounding so your total matches the pay stub.

How do you calculate an overnight or night shift?

When a shift crosses midnight, add 24 hours to the clock out time before subtracting. A shift from 10:00 PM to 6:30 AM with a 30 minute break is 8 hours 30 minutes minus 30 minutes, or 8.00 hours. In the calculator, enter the shift on the day it started. A clock out time earlier than the clock in time is treated as the next morning.

Military time conversion

Many time clocks print 24 hour (military) time. Afternoon hours are the 12 hour time plus 12, so 5:00 PM is 17:00. Midnight is 00:00. The time boxes above accept either format.

Weekly, biweekly and semi-monthly pay periods

A weekly pay period covers one workweek. Biweekly payroll covers two workweeks, 26 paychecks a year, and a full-time schedule is 80 hours. Semi-monthly payroll pays twice a month, 24 paychecks a year, so a period can include parts of three workweeks. In every case overtime is still worked out one workweek at a time. A full-time job of 40 hours a week adds up to 2,080 hours a year.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #22: Hours Worked Under the FLSA
• U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #23: Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA
• 29 CFR 785.18 and 785.19: rest and meal periods
• 29 CFR 785.48: rounding of time clock records
• 29 CFR 778.104: each workweek stands alone
• California Labor Commissioner: Overtime FAQ