Time clock & payroll glossary

Biweekly pays every two weeks, 26 times a year on a fixed weekday. Semimonthly pays twice a month, 24 times a year on fixed dates.

Buddy punching is one employee clocking in or out for another, which pays for hours nobody worked.

Non-exempt employees must get minimum wage and overtime. Exempt employees are excluded from those rules, but only if they meet strict salary and duties tests.

The Fair Labor Standards Act is the federal law that sets minimum wage, overtime, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards for most US employers.

Geofencing draws a virtual boundary around a job site so a mobile punch is only accepted when the employee is actually there.

Holiday pay is pay for a holiday, either as paid time off or a premium for working it. Federal law requires neither for private employers.

A meal break is an uninterrupted period, usually 30 minutes or more, that is unpaid when the employee is fully relieved of duty. Federal law does not require one, but many states do.

Overtime is the extra pay a non-exempt employee earns for hours past 40 in a workweek, at no less than 1.5 times their regular rate under federal law.

Paid sick leave is time off for illness that is paid, required by a growing number of states and cities rather than by federal law.

A pay period is the recurring stretch of time you pay for at once: weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, or monthly.

PTO accrual is earning paid time off gradually, usually a set number of hours per hour worked or per pay period, instead of receiving a lump balance up front.

Punch rounding adjusts clock times to a set interval, commonly the nearest 15 minutes, and is only lawful if it is neutral and doesn't shortchange employees over time.

The regular rate is the hourly figure overtime is based on, and it is usually more than the base wage because it blends in nondiscretionary bonuses and shift differentials.

A rest break is a short break, typically 5 to 20 minutes, that federal law treats as paid work time when it is offered.

Schedule adherence measures how closely worked hours match scheduled hours, exposing unplanned overtime and chronic early or late punches.

A shift differential is extra pay for working a less desirable shift, such as nights or weekends, usually a flat amount per hour or a percentage of base pay.

Time and a half means 1.5 times the regular rate, the federal minimum premium for overtime hours.

Time and attendance is the practice and software of recording when employees work, then turning those records into payable hours.

A time clock kiosk is a shared tablet or terminal at a fixed location where employees punch in and out with a personal PIN.

Time theft is being paid for time not worked, through padded timesheets, early punches, long unrecorded breaks, or buddy punching.

A timesheet is the record of hours an employee worked in a pay period, used to calculate pay and to prove compliance if you are ever audited.

A workweek is a fixed, recurring period of 168 hours, seven consecutive 24-hour days, that you set in advance and use to calculate overtime.