Everhour tracks daily work hours and breaks, while China's lunch-break totals require careful separation of paid and unpaid time.
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A lunch-break calculation in China answers a narrow payroll question: after subtracting unpaid meal or rest time, how many hours remain as paid working time for the day. That total matters because China's standard working-time system is 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week, with approved exceptions for irregular or comprehensive working-hour systems.
China's national Labor Law and State Council working-hours regulation do not set one universal meal-break duration for ordinary adult employees. An ILO working-time review describes meal and rest breaks as generally starting after about 4 hours of work, lasting about 1 to 2 hours depending on the job, with at least 30 minutes not counted as working time.
The practical mistake is treating every pause as unpaid lunch. The ILO review notes that some enterprises provide 20-minute morning and afternoon work breaks after about 2 hours of work, and those work breaks count as working time. A meal or rest break with at least 30 minutes excluded from working time belongs in the unpaid-break field.
Use the employer's written schedule, local approval terms, and actual time records together. A 9:00 to 18:00 shift with a 1-hour unpaid lunch has 9 clock hours and 8 paid hours. A 20-minute paid work break during the morning does not reduce the paid total, because it remains working time under the ILO-described treatment.
Use this formula: paid hours equal end time minus start time, minus unpaid lunch or rest time. Convert lunch minutes into hours before subtracting. The formula gives a time total only; taxes, social insurance, overtime classification, rest-day work, and statutory-holiday work require separate payroll treatment.
For example, a worker clocks in at 09:00, clocks out at 18:00, and takes a 60-minute unpaid meal break. The clock span is 9 hours. The unpaid lunch is 1 hour. Paid working time is 8 hours. At ¥45 per hour, straight-time pay for that day is ¥360 before deductions, overtime premiums, rest-day premiums, or statutory-holiday premiums.
A one-off calculation is enough when you need to check one shift, explain a lunch deduction, or reconcile a single daily total. It also works when the schedule is simple, the unpaid break is known, and the result does not feed a recurring payroll, billing, or approval process.
A managed workflow becomes necessary when employees clock in and out every day, breaks vary, managers approve time, and payroll needs an audit trail. Everhour timecards record clock-in, clock-out, breaks, and daily, weekly, and monthly work-hour totals, so teams can review China-specific working-time totals before payroll export.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
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China's national Labor Law and State Council working-hours regulation set working-hour caps, weekly rest, holidays, and overtime rules, but they do not specify one universal meal-break or rest-break length for ordinary adult employees. Enterprise policy, contract terms, local practice, and approved working-hour arrangements determine the scheduled break length.
Only unpaid meal or rest time reduces paid hours. An ILO working-time review of China describes meal and rest breaks as generally lasting about 1 to 2 hours depending on the job, with at least 30 minutes not counted as working time. Paid short work breaks stay inside paid working time.
Short work breaks are treated differently from unpaid meal breaks in the ILO review. The review notes that some enterprises provide 20-minute work breaks in the morning and afternoon after about 2 hours of work, and those work breaks count as working time. Deducting them as unpaid lunch understates paid hours.
China's Labor Law uses different overtime pay rates: at least 150% of normal wages for extended working hours, 200% for rest-day work when compensatory leave is not arranged, and 300% for work on statutory holidays. Timesheet totals should separate ordinary hours, unpaid meal or rest time, rest-day work, and statutory-holiday work.
Irregular or comprehensive working-hour systems can apply only under the relevant approval framework when the standard 8-hour-day and 40-hour-week system cannot be implemented because of the nature of work or production. A lunch-break calculation should follow the approved schedule and keep unpaid meal or rest time separate from working time.
Everhour timecards record clock-in, clock-out, breaks, and daily, weekly, and monthly work-hour totals. Managers can compare working hours with project hours, review normal-hours highlighting, and use Team Hours reporting before sending totals to payroll.
Everhour Timesheets let users submit weekly time for review, while managers approve, reject, or partially approve entries when corrections are needed. Submitted and approved time is locked for regular members, which protects break edits after payroll review.
Use Everhour timecards to capture clock-in, clock-out, and break records, then review daily, weekly, and monthly work-hour totals before payroll with Everhour.
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