Overtime and state rules · rules read October 11, 2026
Time clock rounding: the rule and a week put to the test
Type your punches and choose an increment; the calculator shows actual and rounded time side by side so you can see who gains.
Written by Radif Partners · How the hours are counted · Editorial policy
Paid time after rounding
8:15
8.25 decimal hours
| Clock in, as punched → counted | 7:53 AM → 8:00 AM |
| Clock out, as punched → counted | 4:38 PM → 4:45 PM |
| Same times on the 24-hour clock | 08:00 to 16:45 |
| Time at work before the break | 8:45 |
| Exact minutes worked (no rounding) | 8:15 |
| Rounding gained or lost | 0 min |
Rounding is accepted only if it averages out over time and does not shortchange the worker (29 CFR 785.48(b)). A shift that ends at or before its start time is counted into the next day. How this is calculated.
Rounding punches is legal under federal rules when it is neutral. 29 CFR 785.48(b) accepts recording time to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth of an hour (6 minutes) or quarter hour (15 minutes), provided the practice averages out so that employees are paid for all the time they actually work over a period. Rounding that consistently favors the employer fails that test. Section 785.48(a) adds a separate point: minutes between an early punch and the start of work, or between the end of work and a late punch, may be disregarded when the employee is not working in that time. Our sample week of five shifts with a 30-minute unpaid lunch shows the scale: actual time is 37:54, quarter-hour rounding to the nearest mark gives 38:00, a difference of +6 min. Rounding the same punches always against the worker gives 36:45, or -69 min in one week and about $1,150 a year at $20 an hour.
Round one punch
Quarter-hour rounding
:00
| Nearest 5 minutes | :05 |
| Nearest tenth (6 min) | :06 |
| Minutes gained or lost (quarter) | -7 |
What 785.48 allows and what it refuses
The regulation on time clocks has two parts that are often blended. Paragraph (a) deals with the gap between a punch and actual work. Workers often arrive a few minutes early or leave a few minutes late, and the clock records it. If no work is done in those minutes, the employer may disregard them and pay from the scheduled start. If work is done, even setting up a station, the minutes count. The question is what you were doing, not where the punch sits.
Paragraph (b) deals with rounding itself. Recording to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth of an hour or quarter hour is a practice the regulation describes and accepts, and it will be presumed to be fine as long as it averages out so that employees are fully paid for the time they actually worked. Two features follow from that wording. Rounding must go to the nearest mark, up or down, not always in one direction. And it is judged over a period of time, so a single week in which the employer gains a few minutes proves nothing alone. The Fact Sheet on hours worked sets out the general principle behind both paragraphs: the employer must pay for all time the employee is required or permitted to work.
A week audited punch by punch
The table follows one worker for five days with a scheduled 8 to 4 shift, a 30-minute unpaid lunch and punches that drift by a few minutes, which is how real clocks look. Each column applies a different increment through the site's rounding engine; the last applies rounding that always favors the employer, the pattern the regulation rules out.
| Day | In | Out | Actual | Nearest 15 | Nearest 6 | Nearest 5 | One-way |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | 7:53 AM | 4:08 PM | 7:45 | 0 min | -3 min | 0 min | -15 min |
| Tue | 8:06 AM | 4:02 PM | 7:26 | +4 min | -2 min | -1 min | -11 min |
| Wed | 7:58 AM | 4:11 PM | 7:43 | +2 min | -1 min | -3 min | -13 min |
| Thu | 8:09 AM | 4:04 PM | 7:25 | -10 min | -1 min | 0 min | -10 min |
| Fri | 7:52 AM | 3:57 PM | 7:35 | +10 min | +1 min | 0 min | -20 min |
| Week | 37:54 | +6 min | -6 min | -4 min | -69 min |
Read the nearest-mark columns first. Some days give a few minutes to the worker, others take a few back, and the week ends close to zero: +6 min for the quarter hour, -6 min for the tenth, -4 min for five minutes. That spread, small and two-sided, is what neutral rounding looks like on paper. Over several months it should hover around zero rather than drift steadily in one direction.
The last column is different. Rounding each arrival up to the next quarter and each departure down to the previous one costs the worker on almost every punch, -69 min in this single week. At $20 an hour over fifty working weeks, that comes to about $1,150 a year, money owed for time actually worked. In a long week, those minutes also come off the overtime line, where each one is worth half again as much.
Auditing your own punches
Write down the real punch times for a month, either from a phone note or from the time clock's own report if your employer shares it. Enter them in the clock in and clock out calculator once with no rounding and once with your employer's increment, and compare the weekly totals. A difference that changes sign from week to week is the regulation working as written. A difference that is negative almost every week is worth raising with payroll. The payroll hours calculator converts the result to decimal hours for the pay stub, and the two-week timesheet shows whether the lost minutes fell in an overtime week.