The 7-minute rule: with quarter-hour rounding, a punch 1 to 7 minutes after the quarter hour rounds down and a punch 8 to 14 minutes after rounds up. It is not itself a law. The federal regulation accepts rounding to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth or quarter of an hour only if, over a period of time, employees are still paid for all the time they actually work (29 CFR 785.48). Use the tool below to see what it does to your own week.
What time clock rounding is
Instead of paying to the exact minute, some employers round each clock punch to a set step: the nearest 5 minutes, the nearest tenth of an hour (6 minutes), or the nearest quarter hour (15 minutes). The federal regulation describes this as a practice found "in some industries, particularly where time clocks are used," and says that "presumably, this arrangement averages out so that the employees are fully compensated for all the time they actually work." For enforcement purposes it will accept the practice provided it is used in a manner that does not result, over a period of time, in failure to compensate employees properly for all the time they have actually worked (29 CFR 785.48(b)).
The 7-minute rule
Take quarter-hour rounding. Each punch goes to the nearest of :00, :15, :30 and :45, and the middle of a 15-minute gap is 7½ minutes. So:
- 1 to 7 minutes past the quarter hour: round down.
- 8 to 14 minutes past the quarter hour: round up to the next quarter hour.
| Actual punch | Rounded to |
|---|---|
| 8:04 a.m. | 8:00 a.m. |
| 8:07 a.m. | 8:00 a.m. |
| 8:08 a.m. | 8:15 a.m. |
| 8:22 a.m. | 8:15 a.m. |
| 8:23 a.m. | 8:30 a.m. |
| 4:53 p.m. | 5:00 p.m. |
Rounding can go either way
Each punch is rounded on its own, the start and the end, so a shift can come out longer or shorter than it really was. Here are three shifts rounded to the quarter hour:
| Actual | Rounded | Real length | Paid length | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:07–5:08 | 8:00–5:15 | 9:01 | 9:15 | +14 min |
| 7:55–4:52 | 8:00–4:45 | 8:57 | 8:45 | −12 min |
| 8:08–4:52 | 8:15–4:45 | 8:44 | 8:30 | −14 min |
The first shift gains 14 minutes and the other two lose 12 and 14. Rounding is fair when gains and losses cancel out over time. It is a problem when your own records show that it goes the same way, against you, week after week.
Rounding tool: what does it do to my week?
Enter your real punches for the week, choose the rounding step and an hourly wage. Leave a day blank if you did not work. An end time earlier than the start counts as a shift past midnight. Enter times as your clock shows them.
Lunch is not subtracted here, because it does not change what rounding does to the start and end punches. One week is only a sample; the regulation looks at the result over a period of time. Nothing you enter leaves your device.
When rounding is a problem
The regulation's test is the result: rounding is accepted if it does not, over a period of time, fail to compensate employees for all the time they have actually worked. Signs that it may not be meeting that test:
- Start punches are always rounded up (later) and end punches always rounded down (earlier), so the rounding only ever removes time.
- Your own record of your real times shows you lose time to rounding in most weeks and never gain it.
- Rounding is used to erase time that you really did work.
Two separate points from the same regulation: time clocks are not required, and where they are used, minor differences between the clock records and the actual hours worked cannot ordinarily be avoided but major discrepancies should be discouraged. And an employee who comes in early or stays late voluntarily, without doing any work, need not be paid for that time (29 CFR 785.48(a)). Work you actually do is a different matter; see how to calculate hours worked.
State law can be stricter than the federal regulation, or different. We have not reviewed the states' rules on rounding, so check with your state labor department if you think rounding is costing you money.
How to check whether rounding is costing you
- For two or three weeks, write down your exact start and end times each day.
- Work out your exact hours with the time card calculator.
- Compare them with the hours on your pay stub.
Small differences in both directions are normal. A difference that always goes against you is worth raising with HR or payroll. If it is not resolved, the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor and your state labor department can tell you what applies to you.
Rounding to tenths of an hour
Some payroll systems round to tenths of an hour (6-minute steps), which the regulation also names. Rounding to the nearest tenth means a punch within 2 minutes after a tenth rounds down and 3 minutes or more rounds up. This is how minutes turn into decimal hours:
| Minutes past the hour | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nearest tenth | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
Minutes are rounded to the nearest tenth of an hour here, so 6 minutes is exactly 0.1 and 12 minutes is 0.2. For every minute of the hour see the minutes to decimal chart. Counting every started 6-minute block as 0.1 would be a different method from the one in this table and is not what the regulation describes.
Sources and limits
The rounding rules come from 29 CFR 785.48, which we read on the government's eCFR site on September 26, 2026. The 7-minute rule is a common convention, not a quotation from the regulation, and the tables and the tool are our own arithmetic, with tests. We did not review state rounding law or court decisions on rounding. Rules change and employers and union contracts can differ. This page is general information, not legal or payroll advice.