In 1888 Willard Bundy, a jeweler in Auburn, New York, invented a time clock that recorded when each worker arrived and left. His brother founded the Bundy Manufacturing Company a year later. Through mergers in 1900 and 1911, the business became part of the company later named IBM. Americans still punch in and punch out.
In 2024, 55.6 percent of American wage and salary workers were paid by the hour. Federal rules let employers round clock times to the nearest 5 minutes, or to the nearest tenth or quarter of an hour. Rounding is accepted only if, over time, it does not leave employees unpaid for time they actually worked.