Hours and minutes vs decimal hours
Time cards record hours and minutes, but payroll multiplies by decimal hours, and mixing them up is the most common timesheet error. 7 hours 30 minutes is 7.5 hours, not 7.30. 8 hours 45 minutes is 8.75, and 20 minutes is 0.33. Each result here is shown both ways, as 7:30 and 7.5 h. Use the decimal figure when you multiply by a rate. At $20 an hour, paying 7.30 hours instead of 7.5 is $4 short a day, or about $1,000 a year.
| Minutes | Decimal | Minutes | Decimal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 0.08 | 35 | 0.58 |
| 10 | 0.17 | 40 | 0.67 |
| 15 | 0.25 | 45 | 0.75 |
| 20 | 0.33 | 50 | 0.83 |
| 25 | 0.42 | 55 | 0.92 |
| 30 | 0.50 | 60 | 1.00 |
Federal overtime: 40 hours in a workweek
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires overtime at 1.5 times the regular rate for every hour a non-exempt employee works over 40 in a workweek, a fixed, recurring 168-hour period the employer chooses. A single long day doesn’t trigger federal overtime, and you can’t average two weeks together: 30 hours one week and 50 the next means 10 overtime hours, even though the two weeks average 40. Paid holidays, vacation and sick time are not hours worked, so they don’t count toward the 40 unless an employer policy or contract says they do.
California overtime: daily limits and the 7th day
California adds daily rules on top of the weekly one:
- Hours over 8 in a workday are paid at 1.5×, and hours over 12 at 2×.
- On the 7th consecutive day worked in a workweek, the first 8 hours are paid at 1.5× and anything beyond at 2×.
- Regular hours over 40 in the workweek are paid at 1.5×.
Hours already paid as daily overtime aren’t counted again toward the weekly 40, so five 10-hour days come to 40 regular hours and 10 overtime, not more. Six 8-hour days have no daily overtime, but the sixth day takes the week past 40, so those 8 hours are overtime. Alternative workweek schedules (such as 4×10) agreed by an employee vote change the daily threshold and are not modelled here.
Rounding punches, breaks and overnight shifts
Rounding.The Department of Labor allows clock times to be rounded to the nearest 5, 6 or 15 minutes if, over time, the rounding neither underpays nor overpays. The nearest-increment option here is the neutral version. With 15-minute rounding a punch at 8:07 becomes 8:00 and one at 8:08 becomes 8:15. Rounding that always goes in the employer’s favor, such as always rounding clock-ins up, is not neutral.
Breaks. Short rest breaks (roughly 5 to 20 minutes) are paid time under federal rules. Only a genuine meal break, usually 30 minutes or more with the employee fully relieved of duty, can be unpaid. Enter only unpaid minutes.
Overnight. A clock-out earlier than the clock-in is read as the next day, so 22:00 to 06:00 is 8 hours. For overtime, the shift counts on the day it started, which is how most payroll systems handle it unless your workday is defined differently.