⏱️ Time Card Calculator

How to Use This Calculator

Enter your hourly rate and daily unpaid break minutes, then fill in clock-in and clock-out times for each day you worked (24-hour or 12-hour format with AM/PM). Hit Calculate Time Card. The headline is total weekly hours; the details split regular versus overtime hours, show gross pay with overtime at 1.5x, and list each day's hours. Overnight shifts work: a clock-out earlier than clock-in rolls to the next day automatically.

The Method: Daily Hours, Weekly Overtime

Each day's span converts to minutes, subtracts the break, and becomes decimal hours; overnight shifts add 24 hours when out is earlier than in. The weekly total splits at 40 per the FLSA: the first 40 at straight rate, the rest at time and a half. The worked example: five days of 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM are 9-hour spans; minus 30-minute lunches = 8.5 hours each; total 42.5; regular 40, overtime 2.5; at $20/hour: 40 x 20 + 2.5 x 30 = 800 + 75 = $875. The box shows this; the calculator reproduces it from the same inputs.

Worked Example

Rate $20/hour, 30-minute daily unpaid lunch. Monday to Friday 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM: each day is 9 hours minus 0.5 = 8.5 hours; five days = 42.5 hours. Regular = 40, overtime = 2.5. Pay = 40 x 20 + 2.5 x 30 = 800 + 75 = $875. Enter those times above and the calculator returns 42.5 total hours with the same pay split. A second case: four 10-hour days (7:30 AM to 6:30 PM minus a 1-hour lunch = 10 hours each): 40 hours exactly, zero overtime, $800. Same weekly hours as a different five-day shape, no overtime either way: the 40-hour threshold is weekly, not daily.

Common Timesheet Mistakes

Forgetting unpaid breaks inflates hours and creates pay disputes when payroll subtracts them; enter breaks consistently. Rounding: many employers round to the nearest quarter hour, which must average out fairly and cannot systematically favor the employer. Off-the-clock work (finishing tasks after clocking out) is illegal to require and common in practice; log it. Misclassified exemption is the expensive one: if you are "salaried" but do nonexempt work over 40 hours, you may be owed back overtime.

Keep Your Own Records

Employer timekeeping errors are common enough that the Department of Labor advises workers to keep personal records. Screenshot or save this calculator's weekly totals each pay period; a dated log beats memory in any dispute. Note schedule changes, missed breaks, and manager-approved overtime in the same log. If a paycheck looks short, compare stub to log before asking payroll: specific numbers ("week of the 12th shows 42.5, paid 40") get fixed fast, vague complaints do not.

Pay estimate using federal FLSA rules; state laws (e.g. California daily overtime) may differ. Not legal or tax advice.

State Overtime Differences

The federal 40-hour rule is the floor; several states build higher. California requires overtime after 8 hours in a day (1.5x) and double time after 12, plus the weekly 40-hour rule; Alaska, Nevada, and Colorado have their own daily thresholds. A few states set higher salary thresholds for exemption than the federal level, pulling more salaried workers into overtime eligibility. Meal and rest break rules also vary: California mandates a 30-minute unpaid meal break before the end of the fifth hour and paid 10-minute rest breaks per 4 hours. If you work in one of these states, this calculator's federal math understates your pay; add the daily overtime layer. When in doubt, your state labor department's website has the current thresholds, and they change more often than you would expect.

Time Theft Goes Both Ways

"Time theft" usually means employees padding hours, but the larger-scale version is employers shaving them: rounding down systematically, auto-deducting lunches never taken, requiring off-the-clock work, misclassifying employees as exempt or as contractors. Studies of wage theft consistently find it dwarfs employee-side padding in dollars. Protect yourself with the personal log this calculator produces: dates, times, breaks actually taken, overtime approved. If a paycheck looks short, the sequence is: compare stub to log, raise it with payroll in writing, then escalate to the state labor department if unresolved. Retaliation for wage complaints is illegal, and documentation of the complaint's timing matters. Most disputes resolve at step one with specific numbers; vague complaints get vague responses.

A Second Worked Example: The Six-Day Week

Rate $18 an hour, 30-minute unpaid lunch daily, six 8.5-hour days (9-hour spans minus lunch). Total: 6 times 8.5 is 51 hours. Regular: 40. Overtime: 11. Pay: 40 times 18 is $720, plus 11 times 27 is $297, total $1,017. The sixth day is where overtime explodes: days five and six are mostly premium pay, which is why employers guard the 40-hour line and why workers volunteer for it.

Check the stub against this math every week. Payroll errors favor the house: missed overtime, rounded breaks, and "forgotten" sixth days are the classics. Your own record, made daily, beats their record made never.

Rounding and Time Theft

The 7-minute rule lets employers round clock times to the nearest quarter hour: 8:06 becomes 8:00, 8:08 becomes 8:15. Legal only if it balances out over time and does not systematically short workers. Some states restrict it; know your state's rule before accepting a rounded stub.

Time theft runs both ways. Working off the clock, through unpaid lunches, or after clocking out is wage theft by the employer, and the FLSA requires payment for all hours worked whether approved or not. Padding hours is theft by the worker. The time card is a legal document; both sides should treat it like one.

Common Timesheet Mistakes

First: forgetting the break subtraction. Nine-hour spans with 30-minute lunches are 8.5-hour days; the break is the most under-subtracted item in timesheets. Second: off-the-clock work. Answering emails after clocking out is work and must be paid; "voluntary" does not make it free.

Third: the overnight omission. Clock-out earlier than clock-in means next day; forgetting the +24 turns an 8-hour night shift into negative hours. Fourth: no personal records. The employer's system is not your backup; keep your own daily log with times and breaks. Fifth: the rate confusion. Overtime is 1.5 times the regular rate, not the base plus a bonus; at $18 the overtime rate is $27, and the stub should show it.