Time card calculator with lunch

How to enter lunch punches

1. In: the time you started work.
2. Lunch out: the time you clocked out for lunch.
3. Lunch in: the time you came back from lunch.
4. Out: the time you finished for the day.

Copy the times from your time clock, app or paper card as they are. On a day without a lunch break, enter only In and Out and leave both lunch times empty. The Punch in clock above the card stamps all four times as you go: Punch in, Start lunch, End lunch, Punch out. Leave days off blank.

How the hours are added up

Each day has two work periods. The calculator finds the time from the first In to the lunch Out, then from the second In to the final Out, and adds the two. The gap between them is your lunch, and it is not counted.

To check it another way: 8:02 AM to 5:04 PM is 9:02, and 9:02 minus the 32-minute lunch is the same 8:30. Five days like this come to 42:30, or 2.5 hours of overtime under the federal 40-hour rule. For a card with a single in and out time and a break in minutes, use the time card calculator.

Paid and unpaid breaks under federal rules

Federal law does not require employers to give lunch or rest breaks. When they do, the general rules on pay are:

• Short breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes count as hours worked and are paid.
• A bona fide meal period, ordinarily 30 minutes or more, is not work time if you are completely relieved from duty.

You are not relieved from duty if you must keep working while you eat, such as answering phones at your desk or staying at a machine. That time counts as hours worked. Some payroll systems deduct lunch automatically; if you worked through it, the time still counts and is worth raising with your employer. Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, 29 CFR 785.18 and 785.19.

Many states have their own meal break laws. The Department of Labor keeps a table of state meal period rules.

California meal and rest breaks

California sets its own rules. As general information from the state Labor Commissioner:

• If you work more than 5 hours in a day, you must be provided a meal period of at least 30 minutes, no later than the end of your fifth hour of work. If the workday is 6 hours or less, you and your employer can agree to waive it.
• If you work more than 10 hours, a second meal period of at least 30 minutes is due. It can be waived only if you work 12 hours or less and the first meal was not waived.
• If you are not relieved of all duty, the meal period is "on duty" and counts as paid time.
• For each workday a required meal period is not provided, the employer owes one extra hour of pay at your regular rate.
• Rest breaks are paid: 10 minutes for every 4 hours worked or major fraction of 4 hours. A missed rest break also carries one extra hour of pay.

In the example above, lunch starts 3 hours 59 minutes into the shift and lasts 32 minutes. Sources: meal periods and rest periods, California Labor Commissioner.

Split shifts and extra punches

A split shift is a workday in two separate blocks with a long unpaid gap between them, such as 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Enter it the same way as a lunch: the first block in In and Lunch out, the second block in Lunch in and Out. That day totals 8:00, and the six-hour gap is not counted.

In California, a split shift can come with a premium of one hour of pay at the minimum wage. Wages above the minimum count toward it, so higher earners may get less or nothing extra, and an unpaid meal period does not make a split shift. Source: California Labor Commissioner.

If you clock in and out more than twice a day, find each period with the hours calculator and add them with the time calculator. For payroll in decimals, see the decimal hours chart.

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