PaycheckHours

How we calculate

This page explains how the calculators get their answers, where the rules come from, how we keep them up to date and what to do if a result looks wrong.

Every calculation runs in your browser

The calculators run on your phone or computer. The times, rates and pay figures you type are not sent to us. The privacy policy explains what your browser keeps.

Tested calculation code

Each calculator's maths is kept in its own module, separate from the page. Automated tests cover the cases that often go wrong: shifts that cross midnight, rounding, and amounts just under or over a legal limit.

A second set of test cases holds results worked out by hand from the rules. The code has to reproduce every one of them before we publish a change. Each tool page also shows worked examples you can repeat with a pocket calculator.

Rules from official sources

Legal rates and rules, such as the federal overtime threshold, the IRS mileage rate or a state minimum wage, are kept in data files separate from the code. Each one records the address of its official source and the date we last checked it there.

Each tool page shows when its rules were last checked and links every source it uses. Tools that only do arithmetic, such as turning minutes into decimal hours, use no legal rates. The full list of sources is at the end of this page.

Rounding

Times are counted in whole minutes and money in whole cents. A total is rounded to the cent once, at the end. Where pay is split into lines (regular, overtime, double time), each line is rounded on its own, so the lines can differ from the total by a cent.

Where a tool offers rounding of clock times, such as the time card, it is off until you choose a step. Federal rules accept rounding to the nearest 5, 6 or 15 minutes only if, over time, workers are paid for all the time they worked (29 CFR 785.48(b)).

What the tools do not do

The calculators work with hours and gross pay. They do not work out income tax or take-home pay, and they apply only the rules each page names. A union contract, a city law or your employer's own policy can change the answer.

Nothing on this site is legal or tax advice. If you think your pay is wrong, ask your employer in writing first; the Paycheck Hours Checker lists the US Department of Labor and the state labor offices that handle wage complaints.

How we re-check the rules

Every month we test that each source address still works and check again, at the source, every rule we have not checked in the last 30 days.

State minimum wages usually change on 1 January and 1 July, so we review the state tables straight after those dates. When a rule changes, its data file, its tests and its checked date are updated together.

Report a problem

Under each calculator's results there is a link, “Report a problem with this calculator”. It opens your email app with what you entered, so we can repeat the calculation. You can also write to hello@paycheckhours.com. Please do not send pay stubs, ID numbers or other personal details.

Corrections

When a report shows that a calculation or a rule is wrong, we correct it, add a test for that case so the error cannot come back, and update the checked date. Rules that change by law, such as a new minimum wage, are updated the same way.

Sources we use

Every official source used by at least one calculator, with the date we last checked it: