Why Your Timesheet Is Probably Wrong (And How Rounding Rules Work)

Under the FLSA, employers can round clock-in/out times to the nearest quarter hour (the 7-minute rule), but because employees tend to arrive consistently early, the rounding systematically favors employers rather than averaging out. Habitual early arrivals can lose roughly 29 hours of unpaid work per year, and auto-deducted lunch breaks that employees work through compound the problem, potentially costing thousands of dollars annually.