Biweekly time card calculator
A two-week pay period is two workweeks, not fourteen days added together. Fill in one week, note the overtime, then do the next — the Fair Labor Standards Act measures overtime per workweek, and averaging the fortnight can hide hours that are owed.
Why a biweekly card has to be split
Payroll that pays every two weeks still owes overtime on each workweek. Thirty-five hours in week one and forty-five in week two is five hours of overtime, not a flat eighty. Adding the fourteen days first and dividing by two is the mistake that makes a 45-hour week look like a 40-hour week.
Use the card below for week one, print or copy the totals, clear it, then enter week two. The overtime rule on the card applies to the seven days you can see, which is the period the law actually uses.
What counts as the workweek
A workweek is any fixed 168-hour stretch the employer already uses — Sunday to Saturday, Monday to Sunday, Wednesday to Tuesday. It does not have to match the pay date. A Friday payday does not move the overtime clock.
If the two weeks in the pay period straddle the workweek start, still total the seven consecutive days the employer named, not the fourteen days on the cheque. The card does not guess that start day; you do, because only the workplace calendar has it.
Minutes to decimal hours
The conversion payroll systems expect. Divide by 60 — do not simply move the decimal point.
| Minutes | Decimal hours | Written as |
|---|---|---|
| 5 minutes | 0.08 | 5m |
| 10 minutes | 0.17 | 10m |
| 15 minutes | 0.25 | 15m |
| 20 minutes | 0.33 | 20m |
| 25 minutes | 0.42 | 25m |
| 30 minutes | 0.5 | 30m |
| 35 minutes | 0.58 | 35m |
| 40 minutes | 0.67 | 40m |
| 45 minutes | 0.75 | 45m |
| 50 minutes | 0.83 | 50m |
| 55 minutes | 0.92 | 55m |
Common questions
How do I add up a biweekly time card?
Total each workweek on its own, then add the two weekly totals for the pay period. Overtime is calculated per workweek, so a 35-hour week plus a 45-hour week owes five hours of overtime, not zero.
Does biweekly pay change when overtime is due?
No. The pay date can be every two weeks and overtime is still owed after 40 hours in a single workweek under federal rules. Averaging the two weeks together can hide overtime that is genuinely owed.