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Time clock rounding rules: the 7-minute rule
Many employers round punch times to a set interval instead of paying to the exact minute. Used fairly, rounding is legal under federal law; used one-sidedly, it shortchanges employees. Here is how the common intervals work, including the well-known 7-minute rule.
What rounding does
Rounding maps each punch — clock-in, clock-out, and meal-period punches — to the nearest increment before hours are computed. A 15-minute interval puts any punch between :08 and :07 around the quarter hour onto the quarter itself. Your paid time is then the sum of the rounded spans minus unpaid breaks.
The 7-minute rule (nearest quarter hour)
The federal 7-minute rule is just nearest-15-minute rounding: within each 15-minute block, minutes 0–7 round down and minutes 8–14 round up. An 8:07 am punch is treated as 8:00 am; an 8:09 am punch as 8:15 am. The name comes from seven being the last minute that rounds down in a quarter-hour block.
Common rounding intervals
| Interval | Typical use | Example (punch 8:06) |
|---|---|---|
| Exact | No rounding — pay to the minute (most accurate) | 8:06 |
| Nearest 5 min | Tight-grain rounding | 8:05 |
| Nearest 6 min | Tenth-hour payroll (0.1 h blocks) | 8:06 |
| Nearest 10 min | Some legacy systems | 8:10 |
| Nearest 15 min | Quarter-hour blocks — the 7-minute rule | 8:00 |
| Nearest 30 min | Coarse legacy rounding | 8:00 |
The neutrality requirement
Courts and the US Department of Labor accept rounding only when it is neutral in practice: it must round both up and down, and averaged over time it must not underpay. A policy that always rounds clock-ins late and clock-outs early is not neutral and produces unlawful wage deductions. Several states, including California, frown on rounding when exact-punch data is available — employers there increasingly pay to the exact minute.
Worked week
Suppose your employer uses nearest-15 rounding and you punch 7:58 in, 12:04 out for lunch, 12:27 back in, and 4:54 out. Rounded: 8:00 in, 12:00 out, 12:30 in, 5:00 out — a 9.0-hour day with a 30-minute unpaid lunch, i.e. 8.5 paid hours. The same punches paid exactly give 8 hours 33 minutes ≈ 8.55 decimal hours. Over a week the small differences even out only if the rounding is truly neutral.
Check your own punches
Set the calculator's punch rounding option to your employer's interval, enter your exact punches, and compare the rounded totals with your paycheck. Keep in mind overtime thresholds apply to hours worked, and a rounding policy cannot erase overtime you actually worked — see California daily overtime for the strictest common variant.
Last updated: October 18, 2026.