Unpaid break deduction
Time Card Calculator with Lunch Break
Enter your punches and the unpaid lunch, and get payable hours with the break already taken out — before overtime and pay are calculated.
More options
Hours. Set to 0 to disable.
| Day | Clock in Clock out | Break (min) | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | 0.00 | ||
| Tue | 0.00 | ||
| Wed | 0.00 | ||
| Thu | 0.00 | ||
| Fri | 0.00 | ||
| Sat | 0.00 | ||
| Sun | 0.00 |
Type it however you like — 9, 930, 9:30p, 1730 or 5pm all work. Arrow keys nudge by 15 minutes, Enter jumps to the next field.
Total hours
0.000m
Gross pay
- Regular
- 0.00hrs
- Overtime
- 0.00hrs
- Double time
- 0.00hrs
A time card calculator with lunch and breaks deducted automatically
Used as a time card calculator with lunch, this tool takes the unpaid meal period straight out of the day before any other figure is worked out. Used as a time card calculator with breaks, it handles multiple unpaid periods, protects against a break longer than the shift, and keeps paid rest breaks where they belong — inside your clocked hours. It is free, needs no sign-up, and works for weekly, biweekly and monthly pay periods.
How the break deduction works
The break is subtracted from the shift before anything else happens. That ordering matters: if the deduction happened after overtime was assessed, a long day with a long lunch could be credited with overtime it never earned.
| Clock in | Clock out | Break | Payable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 AM | 5:30 PM | 30 min | 8.00 |
| 8:00 AM | 5:00 PM | 60 min | 8.00 |
| 7:00 AM | 6:00 PM | 45 min | 10.25 |
| 10:00 PM | 6:30 AM | 30 min | 8.00 |
The last row is an overnight shift. Because the clock-out is earlier than the clock-in, the shift rolls past midnight instead of producing a negative day.
Paid rest breaks vs unpaid meal periods
These are treated differently and it is worth keeping them straight:
- Rest breaks of roughly 5 to 20 minutes are generally counted as paid work time under federal rules. Do not enter them — leave them inside your clocked hours.
- Meal periods of about 30 minutes or more, where you are fully relieved of duty, are generally unpaid. These are what the Break column is for.
- Interrupted meals. If you are called back to work during a meal period, that time is generally compensable. Some states, California among them, add their own meal-period requirements and penalties.
State law can be stricter than the federal baseline. Treat the totals here as an estimate and check the rules in your jurisdiction.
An automatic-deduction shortcut
If every shift carries the same lunch, fill in one day and pressFill weekdays. The punches and the break copy across every empty Monday-to-Friday row at once, and weekends are left alone.
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Frequently asked questions
Should a lunch break be paid or unpaid?
Under federal rules a bona fide meal period, ordinarily 30 minutes or longer, during which the employee is fully relieved of duty is unpaid. Short rest breaks of roughly 5 to 20 minutes are treated as paid work time. Only enter the unpaid meal period here — paid rest breaks should stay inside your clocked hours.
How do I enter a 30-minute lunch?
Type 30 in the Break column for that day. The calculator subtracts it from the shift before totals, overtime, and pay are worked out, so a 9:00 to 5:30 shift with a 30-minute lunch comes to 8.00 hours.
What if I take two breaks in one day?
Add the unpaid minutes together and enter the sum. Two unpaid 20-minute breaks become 40.
What happens if the break is longer than my shift?
The day is clamped to zero rather than going negative, and a warning appears above the totals so the mistake is obvious instead of quietly skewing the week.
Can I turn the break column off?
Yes. Untick "Track unpaid breaks" and the column disappears from the table, the print layout, and every export.