Hourly employees receive pay in accordance with their hourly pay rate and the number of hours worked during the pay period. As an employer, you likely require your hourly employees to complete a weekly time sheet or punch a time clock. If you do not use a computerized timekeeping system, you have to figure out the employee’s time manually. Payroll calculations are in the form of decimals rather than fractions. Apply the right formula to convert 3/4 of an hour to ensure accurate pay.
Follow the rounding principle for figuring employee time, which requires you to round minutes up and down to the nearest quarter hour. For example, round 7:12 a.m. up to 7:15 a.m. and 4:04 p.m. down to 4 p.m.
Convert quarter-hour fraction of 1/4 to .25.
Add .25 three times to arrive at the conversion for 3/4 of an hour, which is .75. For example, if the employee’s time card shows a total of 8 3/4 hours worked on both Monday and Tuesday, add 8.25 plus 8.25 for a total pay of 16.50 hours.
Tip
The most frequent fraction conversions in payroll are 1/4 to .25, 1/2 to .50 and 3/4 to .75.
