Which calculator do I need?
- You have start and end times for each day → Time card calculator
- You clock in and out several times a day, or want an online time clock → Time clock calculator
- You take a lunch break and have four punches a day → Time card with lunch break
- You are paid every two weeks or track hours for several people → Timesheet calculator
- You need a paper or Excel timesheet → Printable timesheet templates
How a time card is added up
For each day, take the end time minus the start time and subtract unpaid breaks. Add up the days of the workweek. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, hours over 40 in a workweek are overtime and paid at one and a half times the regular rate. California, Alaska, Nevada and Colorado also have daily overtime rules, and California pays double time after 12 hours in a day.
Federal law does not require meal breaks, but it does say how to count them: short rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes are paid work time, while a real meal break of 30 minutes or more, with no work, is usually unpaid. Many states require meal or rest breaks of their own.
Employers may round punches to the nearest 5, 6 or 15 minutes if the rounding evens out over time and does not always favor the employer. Time cards must be kept for at least two years and payroll records for three.