Hours Calculator (Time Card Calculator)

When overtime starts: 40 hours in a workweek

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), covered, non-exempt employees earn at least 1.5 times their regular rate for every hour over 40 in a workweek. The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) defines that workweek in 29 CFR 778.105 as a fixed, recurring period of 168 hours, which can start on any day and at any hour.

Weeks cannot be averaged. A 45-hour week followed by a 35-hour week still earns 5 overtime hours, even though the two weeks total 80. Saturday and Sunday earn no premium of their own under federal law; those hours simply count toward the 40.

The FLSA regular rate includes all pay for employment, with limited exclusions (29 CFR 778.108), so nondiscretionary bonuses and night-shift differentials raise the overtime rate above 1.5 times base pay. For a week with a bonus, enter that week’s regular rate as the hourly rate, and the gross pay, bonus included, comes out right. If an employer pays double time, set the multiplier to 2. If its policy starts overtime sooner, such as after 37.5 hours, change the threshold.

Time clock rounding and the 7-minute rule

Many time clocks round each punch. Under 29 CFR 785.48(b), punches may be rounded in steps of 5, 6 or 15 minutes. Over time, the practice must not leave employees unpaid for time they actually worked.

Quarter-hour rounding is the 7-minute rule: punches up to 7 minutes after a quarter hour go back to it, and punches 8 to 14 minutes after go forward to the next one. Tenth-of-an-hour rounding works in 6-minute steps and rounds up from 3 minutes past.

Punch	Nearest 5 min	Nearest 6 min (0.1 h)	Nearest 15 min
7:53 AM	7:55 AM	7:54 AM	8:00 AM
8:07 AM	8:05 AM	8:06 AM	8:00 AM
12:38 PM	12:40 PM	12:36 PM	12:45 PM
4:37 PM	4:35 PM	4:36 PM	4:30 PM

One day can move by 14 minutes. Under quarter-hour rounding, a 7:53 AM to 4:37 PM day with 30 minutes for lunch is paid as 8:00, while the time actually worked is 8:14. The Round each punch setting applies any of the three rules and reports the minutes gained or lost over the week.

Night shifts and meal breaks

Enter a night shift’s out time as the clock shows it. When the out time reads earlier than the in time, the card treats it as the next morning, so 6:45 PM to 7:15 AM spans 12 hours 30 minutes. A 30-minute meal break leaves 12.00 hours, all credited to the day the shift starts.

Only unpaid meal periods come off. 29 CFR 785.19 treats a bona fide meal break, usually at least 30 minutes with no duties at all, as time off. Short rest periods of 5 to about 20 minutes are hours worked under 29 CFR 785.18, so leave them in.

On the two nights a year when clocks change, a shift lasts 1 hour more or less than its punches show. The card compares clock readings, so correct that night by hand, or time it with the Dates and times mode of the duration calculator, which counts real elapsed hours.

Converting a time card to decimal hours

Payroll software multiplies decimal hours by the hourly rate, so 8 hours 45 minutes goes in as 8.75, not 8.45. The minutes become a fraction of 60: the example week’s 43 hours 15 minutes is 43 + 15 ÷ 60 = 43.25. The calculator adds every minute first and converts once, so rounding each day to 2 decimals never creeps into the weekly figure.

The minutes to decimal chart covers each minute from 1 to 60. For hours logged as durations rather than punches, add up hours and minutes instead. The time card math guide walks through a weekly total by hand.