Time card calculator with lunch breaks
Enter each day’s clock in and out and the length of the unpaid lunch, and the break comes off before the week is totalled.
Which breaks come off the clock
Meal breaks of thirty minutes or more, during which somebody is genuinely relieved of duty, are normally unpaid and should be deducted. Short rest breaks — commonly under twenty minutes — are counted as hours worked under federal rules and must not be deducted.
A meal break where somebody keeps working, eating at a desk while covering the phone, is not a genuine break and is generally still paid time. If in doubt, deducting it is the risky choice, not the safe one.
Automatic lunch deductions
Some systems deduct a fixed lunch automatically whether or not it was taken. That is where unpaid-wage claims come from: if a break was worked through, the deduction has to be reversed. This calculator deducts only what you enter, per day, so a skipped lunch is simply a zero.
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
Should a 30-minute lunch be deducted from hours worked?
Yes, if it is unpaid and the employee is genuinely free of duties. If they worked through it, the time is generally still paid and should not be deducted.
Are 15-minute breaks paid?
Under federal rules, short rest breaks of roughly five to twenty minutes count as hours worked and are paid. They should not be subtracted from the card.