A Sweet Decision: See’s Candy Clarifies Time Rounding Rules

While most employers now use computerized timekeeping and payroll systems, many “round” employees’ time, a practice originating in olden days when time and pay calculations were done by hand.  But is this practice legal?  According to a recent California Court of Appeal decision, See’s Candy Shops, Inc. v. Superior Court, 210 Cal. App. 4th 889 (2012), the answer is an emphatic (and delicious) “yes!” Well, sometimes.

What is Rounding?  Rounding of time comes in various forms. The most common method is to round an employee’s clock-in and clock-out times to a time segment such as one-tenth of an hour or one-quarter of an hour.  For example, under quarter-hour rounding, an 8:57 clock-in time would be rounded to 9:00 (resulting in the loss of 3 minutes of paid work time for the employee), whereas a 9:06 clock-in time would be rounded to 9:00 as well (resulting in a gain of 6 minutes of paid work time for the employee). 

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