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Rounding Timekeeping Entries Makes the Cut in CA--Barely

Last week, the California Court of Appeal allowed that an employer may round time entries to the nearest quarter hour for timekeeping and payroll calculations. In the case AHMC Healthcare, Inc. v. Superior Court the employer has a policy that rounds employees’ time clock swipes up or down to the nearest quarter hour. For example, if an employee clocks in between 6:53 and 7:07, he or she is paid as if he or she had clocked in at 7:00; if an employee clocks in from 7:23 to 7:37, he or she is paid as if he or she had clocked in at 7:30. 

The employees’ primary contention was that the employer’s method of calculating employee hours violated the Labor Code because the system rounded employees’ hours up or down to the nearest quarter hour prior to calculating wages and issuing paychecks, rather than using the employees’ exact check-in and check-out times.