Time card calculator
A week of shifts with breaks and overnight hours, totalled the way the Fair Labor Standards Act totals them — and shown again with every punch rounded to the quarter hour, which is what an employer is allowed to do and what most people have never seen priced.
By Alex Seote, Built and maintains Rule Calculator
Rules checked against 29 CFR parts 778 and 785 · How we check
| Day | In | Out | Break | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | 8:00 | |||
| Tue | 8:00 | |||
| Wed | 8:00 | |||
| Thu | 8:00 | |||
| Fri | 8:00 | |||
| Sat | — | |||
| Sun | — |
The week
40:00
40.00 hours — $960.00 at $24.00 an hour.
Regular, overtime and the rounding
| Regular hours | 40.00 (40:00) |
| Overtime hours, over 40 | 0.00 (0:00) |
| Regular pay | $960.00 |
| Overtime pay, at time and a half | $0.00 |
| Total | $960.00 |
| Same week, punches rounded to the quarter hour | 40.00 hours |
| What the rounding is worth | +$0.00 to you |
Overtime is federal law over 40 hours in a workweek — a long single day does not trigger it on its own, though a few states, California among them, add a daily rule of their own. Rounding each punch to the nearest quarter hour is lawful under 29 CFR 785.48 as long as it averages out over time; if it only ever goes one way, it does not.
The week is the unit, not the day
Federal overtime attaches to a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours — a workweek your employer defines, which need not start on Monday. Hours are not averaged across two weeks: a 30-hour week followed by a 50-hour week owes ten hours of overtime, and paying 80 straight hours over the pair is unlawful however even it looks.
The rounding rule is the other half. Fifteen-minute rounding is permitted precisely because it is expected to wash out; the regulation is explicit that it must not consistently work against the employee. A time card that only ever rounds down is not a rounding practice, it is unpaid work, and the figure above puts a number on it.
Questions people actually ask
- Is a twelve-hour day overtime?
- Not under federal law. The FLSA counts overtime over 40 hours in a workweek, so eleven hours on Monday and five on Friday is a 16-hour week with no overtime in it at all. Several states add a daily rule — California pays time and a half past eight hours in a day and double time past twelve — so check the state before assuming the federal answer is the whole answer.
- Can my employer round my punches?
- Yes, within limits. 29 CFR 785.48 permits rounding to the nearest quarter hour provided it averages out over time and does not systematically favour the employer. Clocking in at 9:07 rounds back to 9:00 and pays you for seven minutes you did not work; clocking in at 8:53 rounds forward and takes seven you did. The table above shows your week both ways, which is the only way to see which direction it runs for you.
- Does an unpaid lunch break come out of my hours?
- A genuine meal break of 30 minutes or more, free of duties, is not working time and is not paid. A short rest break of five to twenty minutes is working time and must be paid. A "lunch" spent answering the phone at your desk is working time whatever it is called, and that is a common and expensive misclassification.
- How do I handle a night shift that crosses midnight?
- Enter it as you worked it — 10:00pm to 6:00am — and the calculator carries it into the next day rather than returning a negative. That subtraction going the wrong way is the single most common bug in a home-made spreadsheet time card, and it silently produces a shorter week.
- How is overtime pay calculated?
- At one and a half times the regular rate, on hours over 40. The regular rate is not always the base hourly figure: non-discretionary bonuses, shift differentials and commissions have to be folded into it first under 29 CFR part 778. If you get a production bonus, your true overtime rate is higher than time and a half on your base rate.