Time Card Calculator

Enter each day on its own line with a label, the clock-in time, the clock-out time and any unpaid break. The calculator works out each day's hours, subtracts the break, and totals the week in hours and minutes and in decimal hours, the form payroll systems use. A shift from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM with a 30-minute lunch is 8 hours. Shifts that end after midnight are handled automatically.

Some employers round punches to the nearest 5, 10 or 15 minutes. Choose a rounding option to see the effect: each start and end time is rounded before the hours are added. Under US Department of Labor rules, rounding to the nearest quarter hour is allowed only if it averages out so that employees are paid for all the time they actually work.

Wages and Overtime

Turn on payment information to turn hours into pay. Regular hours are paid at the base rate and overtime hours at the base rate times the overtime multiplier, usually 1.5 (time and a half). Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, covered non-exempt employees must receive at least time and a half for hours over 40 in a workweek. Federal law has no daily limit, but some states do: California, for example, requires overtime after 8 hours in a day, and the per-day option models rules like that. At $35 an hour, a 45-hour week with weekly overtime pays 40 × $35 + 5 × $52.50 = $1,662.50.

Exempt vs. non-exempt employees

Whether overtime applies depends on how a job is classified. Non-exempt employees are covered by the FLSA's minimum wage and overtime rules, so their hours must be tracked and every hour over 40 in a workweek is paid at a premium. Most hourly workers fall into this group, but being paid a salary does not by itself make someone exempt.

Exempt employees are excluded from the overtime requirement. To qualify for the common white-collar exemptions, an employee generally has to pass three tests. First, they must be paid on a salary basis, receiving a predetermined amount each pay period that does not shrink because of the quantity or quality of their work. Second, the salary must be at least the federal threshold, which under the Department of Labor rule in force is $684 per week ($35,568 a year); a 2024 rule that would have raised it was struck down by a federal court. Third, their main duties must be executive, administrative or professional in nature, for example managing a department and directing the work of other employees, exercising discretion and independent judgment on significant business matters, or doing work that requires advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning.

Several other exemptions exist, including outside sales employees, certain computer professionals and highly compensated employees, and some jobs, such as many in agriculture or transportation, are covered by special rules. Job titles do not decide the matter; the actual duties and pay do. States can set higher salary thresholds or stricter tests, and the more protective rule applies.

Misclassifying a non-exempt employee as exempt can lead to claims for back overtime pay and penalties, so employers should review job duties carefully. Even for exempt staff, tracking hours can be useful for project costing, client billing and spotting workloads that are not sustainable.

Brief history of time cards/clocks

As factories grew in the 19th century, employers needed a reliable way to record when each worker arrived and left. In 1888, jeweler Willard Bundy of Auburn, New York, patented a time recorder in which each employee inserted a numbered key that printed the time on a paper roll. Around the same period, Alexander Dey patented a dial recorder, and Daniel Cooper patented a card-based recorder in 1894. Bundy's business later merged with others into the International Time Recording Company, which in turn became part of the company that was renamed IBM in 1924.

The familiar punch clock, in which a worker slides a paper card into a slot and the machine stamps the time, became standard in offices and plants through the 20th century. Electronic systems arrived in the late 20th century, using magnetic stripe cards, barcodes and proximity badges, and today many workplaces use software, mobile apps and biometric readers that record time automatically and feed it straight into payroll.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• US Department of Labor – Overtime Pay
• US Department of Labor – Fair Labor Standards Act