Timekeeping, rounding and break rules for hourly employees under the FLSA
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires a covered employer to keep accurate records of the hours each non-exempt hourly employee works each workday and workweek and to count all hours worked. The Department of Labor (DOL) accepts rounding start and stop times to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth of an hour or quarter hour only if it does not, over time, leave employees unpaid for time worked. Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks.
What timekeeping records does the FLSA require me to keep for hourly employees?
Federal rules require an employer to keep accurate records of the hours each non-exempt employee works each workday and each workweek, to keep payroll records at least 3 years and basic time cards at least 2 years, and to keep them in any form that stays clear, identifiable and available on request.
For each covered employee, 29 CFR 516.2 lists the time and pay items, including when the workweek begins, the “hours worked each workday and total hours worked each workweek,” the regular hourly rate for any workweek in which overtime is due, overtime premium pay, additions to and deductions from wages, and total wages paid with the date of payment.
For employees on fixed schedules, the employer may record the normal schedule and, in each week the employee keeps it, indicate that the hours were actually worked, but in a week with more or fewer hours it must show the exact hours worked each day and week.
Do I have to use a time clock or a timekeeping system?
Federal rules do not require a time clock, and DOL says any timekeeping plan is acceptable as long as it is complete and accurate. 29 CFR 785.48 says “Time clocks are not required,” and DOL’s Fact Sheet 21 says employers may use a time clock, a timekeeper or employees writing their own times.
29 CFR 516.1 prescribes no particular form of record and allows data processing memory if adequate viewing equipment is available and reproductions are clear and identifiable by date or pay period. DOL’s July 2026 letter FLSA2026-9 says records must cover hours worked “whether at the worksite or at home.”
How long do I have to keep time and payroll records?
An employer must preserve payroll records for at least 3 years from the last date of entry, and basic time and earning cards or sheets showing daily starting and stopping times for at least 2 years from the date of last entry.
29 CFR 516.5 sets the 3-year period for payroll records, meaning records containing the employee information and data part 516 requires, which include the hours-worked record listed in 29 CFR 516.2. 29 CFR 516.6 sets the 2-year period for the time and earning cards or sheets, wage rate tables and schedules, and records of additions to or deductions from wages.
Under 29 CFR 516.7, records must be “safe and accessible” at the workplace or an established central recordkeeping office, and central-office records must be available “within 72 hours following notice.” Part 516 does not excuse any other federal, state or local recordkeeping requirement (29 CFR 516.1).
What counts as hours worked?
Hours worked include all time an employee must be on duty, on the employer’s premises or at another prescribed place of work, from the beginning of the first principal activity of the workday to the end of the last, plus any additional time the employee is allowed to work, according to DOL’s Handy Reference Guide to the FLSA. The statute says “employ” includes “to suffer or permit to work.”
DOL describes a workweek as 168 hours in 7 consecutive 24-hour periods that may begin on any day and hour the employer sets, and each workweek stands alone. For most covered nonexempt employees, hours over 40 in a workweek are paid at not less than one and one-half times the regular rate.
Do I have to pay for work an employee does that I did not approve?
Work the employer knows or has reason to believe is being performed counts as hours worked even if the employer did not ask for it, and a rule against it is not enough.
29 CFR 785.11 says “Work not requested but suffered or permitted is work time,” whatever the reason. 29 CFR 785.12 applies the rule to work done away from the premises, “or even at home,” when the employer “knows or has reason to believe” it is being performed. 29 CFR 785.13 says “The mere promulgation of a rule against such work is not enough,” and that management must exercise control to see that unwanted work is not performed.
In DOL’s Fact Sheet 53, written for health care, nurses who stay past the shift to chart, with the director aware and a policy requiring prior authorization, “must be paid time-and-one-half for all FLSA overtime hours worked.”
DOL’s May 2026 letter FLSA2026-8 says an employer that clearly instructs employees not to start before the shift, warns of discipline and enforces the rule “may be excused from compensating occasional off-the-clock work” done in violation of the policy and “without the employer’s actual or constructive knowledge.” The excuse covers only occasional work without that knowledge, and a rule against unapproved work does not excuse nonpayment of work the employer knows about.
What happens if I do not pay for all hours worked?
The FLSA allows the Department of Labor or an employee to recover back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages where minimum wage or overtime violations exist, according to DOL’s Handy Reference Guide to the FLSA, revised November 2023. “Generally, a 2-year statute of limitations applies,” and “A 3-year statute of limitations applies in cases involving willful violations.”
An employee may also sue for back wages, liquidated damages, attorney’s fees and court costs, and DOL may assess civil money penalties for repeat or willful violations and seek an injunction, including against failure to keep proper records. DOL’s Fact Sheet 53 adds that failing to count all hours may cause a minimum wage violation if total pay divided by all hours falls below the federal minimum wage, and that an overtime violation is more likely.
Is it legal to round employee time?
Under 29 CFR 785.48(b), DOL accepts rounding employee start and stop times to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth of an hour or quarter hour for enforcement purposes only if the practice does not, over a period of time, result in failing to pay employees for all the time they actually worked.
The regulation names those three increments, does not use the word “neutral,” and states no percentage, audit method or 7-minute or 8-minute cutoff. “Neutral” comes from DOL’s May 2026 letter FLSA2026-8, which says a rounding practice must be “neutral on its face and average out over time” so that it does not consistently favor the employer. The letter applies one hospital’s facts and does not change the regulation.
The 1 to 7 minute and 8 to 14 minute cut is DOL’s quarter-hour illustration in Fact Sheet 53, a July 2009 health care fact sheet that says it lacks the force and effect of law. DOL says an employer “may violate the FLSA minimum wage and overtime pay requirements” if it rounds down every time. In that illustration, time from 1 to 7 minutes may be rounded down and not counted, and time from 8 to 14 minutes must be rounded up and counted as a quarter hour. It covers quarter-hour rounding only.
How can I run a rounding policy that stays within the rules?
A rounding policy is judged by its results over a period of time, and DOL says a practice that only rounds time down may violate the FLSA while a facially neutral practice that averages out over time would likely comply.
In Example 3 of Fact Sheet 53, an employer pays only full 15-minute increments, and a $10 an hour employee scheduled for 40 hours clocks out 12 minutes after shift end each day and is paid $400. DOL says that is not compliant because one hour of overtime a week is owed (12 minutes times 5 days is 60 minutes).
DOL’s May 2026 letter FLSA2026-8 addressed a hospital that rounded early clock-ins of up to 7 minutes forward to the scheduled start. If employees do compensable work during the early window, a policy that rounds only early arrivals to the scheduled start “is not neutral” and is inconsistent with 785.48(b). If the practice is facially neutral, employees also benefit in other ways, such as late arrivals credited with the scheduled start time, and it averages out over time, the letter says it “would likely comply.” Clocking in or out by itself is generally not compensable work.
As a practice suggestion, not a federal requirement, an employer can compare rounded hours with actual punch times across workweeks.
Do I have to pay when an employee clocks in early or clocks out late?
An employer must pay for work an employee performs before or after the scheduled shift, but early or late clock punching alone may be disregarded when the employee does no work in that time.
Under 29 CFR 785.48(a), where time clocks are used, employees who voluntarily arrive before their regular starting time or stay after closing time need not be paid for those periods “provided, of course, that they do not engage in any work.”
DOL’s May 2026 letter FLSA2026-8 says time waiting in line to clock in and out before the first and after the last principal activity of the day is, as a general rule, not compensable. Pre-shift activities “integral and indispensable” to the principal activities are compensable, and the letter lists mandatory equipment checks and required computer log-ins as activities that may qualify.
Can I ignore a few minutes of work as de minimis?
An employer can disregard only insubstantial or insignificant periods of time beyond the scheduled working hours, uncertain and indefinite periods of a few seconds or minutes, that cannot as a practical administrative matter be precisely recorded.
29 CFR 785.47 says an employer may not arbitrarily fail to count as hours worked any part, however small, of fixed or regular working time, and cites court holdings including one that “10 minutes a day is not de minimis.” The regulation states no minute threshold of its own.
DOL’s May 2026 letter FLSA2026-8 calls de minimis a fact-specific test weighing the difficulty of recording the time, the aggregate amount of time and the regularity of the work. Regular compensable pre-shift work the employer actually or constructively knows of and allows is “unlikely to fall within the de minimis doctrine,” and because technology records exact punch times, “employers should expect exacting scrutiny of de minimis claims.”
Do I have to give hourly employees a meal break, and is it paid?
Federal law does not require an employer to give hourly employees a meal break, but a meal break counts as paid hours worked unless it is a bona fide meal period in which the employee is relieved of work. DOL’s Breaks and Meal Periods page says federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks.
A bona fide meal period is not work time, the employee must be relieved of work during it, and 30 minutes or more is ordinarily long enough. 29 CFR 785.19 says an employee required to perform any duties, “whether active or inactive,” while eating is not relieved.
The regulation says the employee must be “completely relieved from duty,” and DOL’s 2026 opinion letters say the Division and most courts apply a predominant benefit test, case by case, on the facts presented. As of November 2026, the text of 29 CFR 785.19 is unchanged. In FLSA2026-7 (May 28, 2026), DOL said requiring an employee to remain on the premises does not by that fact alone make meal time compensable under the FLSA. In FLSA2026-11 (September 7, 2026), DOL said a meal period “significantly reduced through travel time, frequent or lengthy interruptions, or restrictions” may be compensable in whole or in part.
Can I automatically deduct a meal break from every shift?
An employer may choose to deduct 30 minutes automatically each shift, but DOL says it “must ensure that the employees are receiving the full meal break.”
In Example 9 of DOL’s Fact Sheet 53, a July 2009 health care fact sheet, a facility that automatically deducts 30 minutes and told employees at hire of the policy and their duty to take a meal break complies, but the employer is “still responsible for ensuring” employees take the break without interruption. In Example 10, if meals are interrupted so the period is “predominately for the benefit of the employer,” the employees should be paid for the full 30 minutes.
Do I have to give rest breaks, and are they paid?
Federal law generally does not require rest breaks, but short breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes that an employer provides are paid time that counts as hours worked.
29 CFR 785.18 says rest periods of 5 minutes to about 20 minutes are customarily paid for as working time and “must be counted as hours worked.”
The one federal break requirement is for nursing employees. DOL’s Handy Reference Guide to the FLSA, revised November 2023, says an employer must give most nursing employees reasonable break time and a private place, other than a bathroom, to pump breast milk each time needed for one year after the child’s birth. The break is generally not compensable unless other law requires it, but it counts as hours worked if the employee is not completely relieved from duty, and an employee who pumps during a paid break is paid for that time. An employer with fewer than 50 employees is not subject to it if compliance would impose an undue hardship.
Do state meal and rest break rules differ from federal rules?
States and cities can set stricter meal, rest and recordkeeping rules than federal law, so an employer follows the state labor agency’s page for each state where it has employees.
DOL’s table of state meal period requirements, dated January 1, 2023, lists state meal period rules by jurisdiction but does not replace the state agency’s page. Each agency page below notes exceptions.
As of November 2026, the California Labor Commissioner’s Office meal period page (revised 7/11/2012) says an employer may not employ an employee for more than five hours per day without a meal period of not less than thirty minutes, which may be waived by mutual consent if the total work period is no more than six hours. A second thirty-minute meal period is required beyond ten hours per day, with a limited waiver the page describes. If the employer requires the employee to remain at the work site, the meal period must be paid. The rest period page (April 2021) says employers must authorize and permit a paid rest period of a net ten consecutive minutes for each four hours worked “or major fraction thereof,” except that none is required when total daily work time is under 3.5 hours.
The Washington Department of Labor & Industries page on rest breaks, meal periods and schedules says employees must be allowed a paid rest period, free from duties, of at least 10 minutes for every 4 hours worked. Employees must be allowed a meal period of at least 30 minutes when they work more than five hours in a shift, and the meal period must be paid if the employee is required to remain on duty, required to remain on call on the premises or work site in the employer’s interest, or called back to work and interrupted.
Is waiting time, on-call time or sleeping time paid?
Waiting and on-call time counts as hours worked when the employee cannot use the time effectively for personal purposes, and, under 29 CFR 785.21, sleeping time counts as hours worked when the employee is on duty for less than 24 hours.
29 CFR 785.14 says the facts may show an employee was “engaged to wait” or “waited to be engaged,” and DOL’s Fact Sheet 22 says the first is work time and the second is not. Under 29 CFR 785.16, periods in which the employee is completely relieved from duty and that are long enough to use effectively are not hours worked, but the employee is not relieved unless “definitely told in advance” that the employee may leave and will not have to start work until a specified hour.
Under 29 CFR 785.17, an employee required to remain on call on the employer’s premises, or so close to them that the time cannot be used effectively for personal purposes, is working. An employee merely required to leave word at home or with company officials where the employee can be reached is not working while on call. DOL’s Fact Sheet 53 adds that an employee required to carry a cell phone or beeper is “not working (in most cases) while on-call,” but “additional constraints on the employee’s freedom” could require pay.
On duty for 24 hours or more, an employer and employee may agree to exclude bona fide meal periods and a bona fide regularly scheduled sleeping period of not more than 8 hours, as 29 CFR 785.22 describes, if adequate sleeping facilities are furnished and the employee can ordinarily enjoy an uninterrupted night’s sleep.
Is travel time paid?
Ordinary travel from home to work is not hours worked, but travel that is part of the employee’s principal activity during the workday is.
Under 29 CFR 785.35, “Normal travel from home to work is not worktime.” Under 29 CFR 785.38, travel from job site to job site during the workday “must be counted as hours worked,” and so must travel from a required meeting place to the work place when the employee must first report there to receive instructions or pick up tools.
DOL’s July 2026 letters apply these rules to specific facts. In FLSA2026-9, office-based non-exempt employees could travel from home to the office mid-day as a voluntary alternative to unpaid commuter travel, and DOL said that was an ordinary commute and not hours worked. In FLSA2026-10, a field service engineer was required to spend most of an hour on scheduling calls immediately before driving an employer-provided vehicle from home at the time and in the manner the employer directed, and DOL said the drive to the first client site “is not an ordinary commute” and is compensable.
Is training or meeting time paid?
Attendance at a training program, lecture or meeting need not be counted as working time if all four criteria in 29 CFR 785.27 are met, which are that it falls outside regular working hours, is in fact voluntary, is not directly related to the employee’s job, and involves no productive work.
DOL’s regulations add that attendance is not voluntary if the employer requires it or if the employee “is given to understand or led to believe” that not attending would adversely affect working conditions or continued employment. In DOL’s Fact Sheet 53, a program called voluntary that supervisors expect all employees to attend is not truly voluntary, so the time is hours worked.
How should I handle a break that runs longer than allowed?
An unauthorized extension of an authorized break need not be counted as hours worked when the employer has “expressly and unambiguously communicated” that the break may last only a specific length, that any extension is contrary to its rules, and that any extension will be punished.
DOL’s Breaks and Meal Periods page and Fact Sheet 22 word the rule this way, and the rest period regulation does not state it.
Talk to an expert at Asure
Asure Time & Attendance lets employers capture time, manage exceptions, approve hours and send approved hours into payroll, with overtime alerts and manager approval before payroll. It pairs with AsureCentral or AsureWorks. Whatever method captures the time, the recordkeeping, rounding and break rules above stay the employer’s responsibility. Talk to an expert at Asure about how time capture, approvals and payroll fit together for your hourly workforce.
