7-minute rule calculator
Watch the 7-minute rule round your punches
Enter a clock-in and a clock-out. Each punch rounds to the nearest quarter hour, and the bar shows exactly which side of the 7.5-minute line it landed on. Change a minute and watch it flip.
7 min in, rounds down to 9:00 (-7 min)
7 min in, rounds down to 9:00 (-7 min)
A punch 7 minutes or less into a quarter hour rounds back to the start of that quarter; at 8 minutes or more it rounds forward to the next one. The line sits at 7.5 minutes. Over many days the small gains and losses are meant to average out, which is the condition the law puts on rounding.
How the boundary works
Quarter-hour rounding puts every punch on the nearest :00, :15, :30, or :45. The only question is which way a punch in between goes. The rule splits the 15-minute block at its midpoint, 7.5 minutes: 7 minutes or less into the block rounds back, 8 minutes or more rounds forward. That midpoint is why it is called the 7-minute rule.
Because each punch can move up to 7 minutes either way, a single day can round slightly for or against you. Federal law allows the practice only when it stays neutral over time. To choose a different increment or see the pay effect across a shift, use the rounding calculator.
Where this comes from
The 7-minute rule is quarter-hour rounding as described in the federal regulation 29 CFR 785.48 and the Department of Labor's guidance on hours worked. The time clock rounding rules page quotes the regulation and covers the California shift after Camp v. Home Depot, where rounding is falling out of use.
For the whole timesheet rather than a single shift, the time card calculator can apply quarter-hour rounding to a full week, and the methodology page shows the exact rounding math.
Common questions
What is the 7 minute rule?
It is the common name for quarter-hour rounding. When an employer rounds punches to the nearest 15 minutes, a punch 7 minutes or less into a quarter rounds back to the start of that quarter, and a punch 8 minutes or more rounds forward to the next quarter. The dividing line is 7.5 minutes.
Does 7 minutes round up or down?
Exactly 7 minutes past the quarter rounds down. 8 minutes past rounds up. So a clock-in at 9:07 becomes 9:00, and a clock-in at 9:08 becomes 9:15. Try both in the tool above to watch the boundary flip.
Is the 7 minute rule legal?
Rounding to the quarter hour is permitted under federal law when it is neutral over time, meaning it does not consistently favor the employer. That is the rule in 29 CFR 785.48. Some states, California in particular, are moving away from allowing rounding at all when exact time can be captured. The rounding rules page covers this in detail. This is information, not legal advice.
Can rounding ever cost me pay?
On a single day it can round for or against you by up to 7 minutes on each punch. The federal standard expects those swings to average out over time. If your punches are consistently rounded against you, that is the situation the neutrality requirement is meant to prevent.