Time Card Calculator

How to use the time card calculator

1. Type the in and out times for each day you worked. 8:30 AM, 8:30am, 8:30a and 20:30 all work. Leave both boxes empty for a day off.
2. Enter unpaid break minutes for the day, usually a meal break. Short paid breaks stay in the hours, so leave them out.
3. Choose punch rounding only if your employer rounds clock times; otherwise leave it at no rounding.
4. Add your hourly rate to see gross pay, and set the weekly overtime threshold (40 hours under federal law, or 0 to turn overtime off).

The results give the week’s total in decimal hours, the same total in hours and minutes, regular and overtime hours, gross pay, and each day’s hours so you can check them against your pay stub.

How the hours are calculated

The calculator opens on a sample week:

• Monday 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM with a 30-minute lunch: 8:30 − 0:30 = 8:00.
• Tuesday 7:53 AM to 4:38 PM with 30 minutes: 8:45 − 0:30 = 8:15.
• Wednesday 10:00 PM to 6:30 AM, an overnight shift, with 30 minutes: 8:30 − 0:30 = 8:00.
• Thursday 9:07 AM to 5:52 PM with a 45-minute lunch: 8:45 − 0:45 = 8:00.
• Friday 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM with an hour: 10:00 − 1:00 = 9:00.

The total is 41 hours 15 minutes, or 41.25 hours. At $20 an hour with time and a half over 40, pay is 40 × $20 = $800 plus 1.25 × $30 = $37.50, for $837.50 gross.

Converting minutes to decimal hours

Payroll systems multiply the rate by decimal hours, so 8 hours 15 minutes is 8.25 hours, not 8.15. Divide the minutes by 60:

• 6 minutes = 0.1 hour; 12 minutes = 0.2
• 15 minutes = 0.25; 30 minutes = 0.5; 45 minutes = 0.75
• 20 minutes = 0.333…; 40 minutes = 0.667; 50 minutes = 0.833

Mixing the two formats is a common source of pay disputes. Reading 7:45 as 7.45 hours instead of 7.75 loses 18 minutes; at $20 an hour, that is $6.00 for the day.

Which breaks to subtract

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet #22 on hours worked explains the federal rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Short rest periods, usually 20 minutes or less, are counted as hours worked and paid. Bona fide meal periods, typically 30 minutes or more, generally don’t have to be paid, but only if the employee is completely relieved from duty. Eating at your desk while answering the phone is working time.

So in this calculator, enter the unpaid meal break and nothing else. If you clocked out for lunch, the break is the gap between the two lunch punches: out at 12:02 PM and back at 1:00 PM is a 58-minute break. Some states have their own meal and rest break rules, which this calculator doesn’t apply.

Time clock rounding

Some employers round each clock punch. The federal regulation on time clocks, 29 CFR 785.48(b), notes the long-standing practice of recording start and stop times to the nearest 5 minutes, or to the nearest tenth or quarter of an hour. It accepts the practice for enforcement only if it averages out so that, over time, employees are paid for all the time they actually work.

With quarter-hour rounding, a punch up to 7 minutes past the quarter rounds down and 8 minutes or more rounds up. A Thursday punched 9:08 AM to 5:52 PM with a 45-minute lunch is 7:59 actual; rounded, it becomes 9:15 to 5:45, or 7:45, a quarter hour less. On a different day the same rule can round in the employee’s favor. Comparing the rounded and unrounded totals over several weeks shows whether the rounding evens out.

The Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet #21 on recordkeeping includes a sample time sheet whose Monday reads 8:00am to 12:02pm and 1:00pm to 5:03pm, with 8 hours in the total column. The punches add up to 8 hours 5 minutes; rounding each punch to the quarter hour gives 8:00, 12:00, 1:00 and 5:00, or 8 hours. To try it, enter 8:00 AM to 5:03 PM with a 60-minute break and quarter-hour rounding.

Overnight and split shifts

Overnight shifts. When the out time is earlier than the in time, the calculator treats it as the next morning, so 10:00 PM to 6:30 AM is 8.5 hours before breaks. Enter the shift on the day it started. Under the FLSA, overtime is figured by the workweek your employer sets, so a shift that crosses midnight at the end of a workweek may be split between two weeks on your pay stub.

Split shifts. For a day worked in two blocks, such as 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM, enter the first in time, the last out time and the gap as the break: 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM with a 360-minute break gives 8 hours.

Overtime on the time card

Federal overtime is due at one and a half times the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek, according to the Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet #23. Each workweek stands on its own; long days in one week can’t be averaged with short days in another. This calculator applies that weekly rule with a single hourly rate. If you also earned a bonus, commission or shift premium, the regular rate is higher than your base rate, and the overtime calculator on this site handles that case. Some states and union contracts also require daily overtime, which isn’t modeled here.

Federal law also requires employers to record hours worked each day and each workweek, by any method that is complete and accurate, so your pay stub should show the same total as your own time card for the week.

Checking your pay stub

Compare three numbers with your stub: total hours, the hourly rate, and overtime hours. If the hours differ, look first at rounding, unpaid breaks and where the workweek starts; a pay period that starts on a Sunday splits a Saturday night shift differently from one that starts on a Monday. If the hours match but the pay doesn’t, check whether the stub shows decimal hours and whether overtime is paid at 1.5 times the rate. Keep your own record of punches for each week, so that any difference can be traced to a specific day.

Sources & assumptions

How this calculator gets its numbers. Full method: our methodology.

• Each day = out time − in time − unpaid break; an out time at or before the in time is the next day (overnight).
• Rounding, if chosen, applies to each punch, to the nearest 5, 6 or 15 minutes; halfway rounds up.
• Overtime is hours over the weekly threshold you set (40 under the FLSA) at 1.5 × the hourly rate; daily overtime and state rules aren’t applied.
• Short rest breaks generally count as paid time; enter only unpaid meal breaks as breaks.
• Pay is gross, before taxes and deductions, and assumes one hourly rate with no bonuses.

Sources

1. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 29 CFR 785.48, Use of time clocks. Recording start and stop times to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth or quarter of an hour is accepted for enforcement only if, over time, it doesn’t fail to pay employees for all the time they actually work.
2. U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet #22: Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Rest periods of about 20 minutes or less are counted as hours worked; bona fide meal periods, typically 30 minutes or more with the employee completely relieved from duty, generally need not be paid.
3. U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet #21: Recordkeeping Requirements under the FLSA. Employers must record hours worked each workday and workweek, and may use any timekeeping method (a time clock, a timekeeper, or workers writing down their own times) as long as it is complete and accurate; includes a sample in/out time sheet.
4. U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet #23: Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA. Overtime at not less than one and one-half times the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek; each workweek stands alone; no federal overtime requirement for weekends or holidays as such.

Last reviewed November 2, 2026. If your state or contract has daily overtime or different break rules, use your employer’s policy or your state labor department.