Most payroll calculations use a rounding system to arrive at the payroll amount. This system divides a worker’s time into hours and quarter hours for ease of calculating total pay, always rounding upwards to the next quarter-hour to ensure that the inaccuracies are in the employee’s favor. However, this leaves the employer shortchanged. For a more accurate calculation without the rounding, you can convert the pay period to minutes worked, and then calculate the payroll. After calculating the payroll amount, simply convert minutes back to hours with no rounding involved at all.
1. Find the hourly pay rate for which you’re doing the payroll calculation.
2. Divide the pay rate by 60 to determine the pay rate by minute. A $15 an hour job for instance would be 25 cents a minute.
3. Calculate the amount of time worked in minutes during the pay period by adding all of the work time during the calculation period together. Multiply the numbers of hours worked by 60, and then add the number of minutes left over to that amount for a total. For example, if the worker worked 26 hours and 17 minutes, then multiply 26 by 60 and add 17 for the total minutes worked, 1,577.
4. Multiply the minutes worked by the minute pay rate for the total payroll. For 1,577 minutes at $.25 a minute, the total would be $394.25.
5. Convert the minutes worked back into hours by dividing by 60. Take the number of hours, multiply by 60 again and subtract from the total minute amount to get the remaining minutes in the work period. For 1,577 minutes, the result would be 26 hours and 17 minutes.
- Payroll records
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