$400 Billion Annual Time Theft Cost

Overview

Time theft costs U.S. businesses an estimated $400 billion annually. This includes buddy punching, extended breaks, early clock-outs, late arrivals, personal activities during work hours, and intentional time misreporting.

Cost Components

• Buddy punching and proxy clock-ins
• Extended or unauthorized breaks
• Early departures and late arrivals
• Personal activities during paid time
• Time rounding abuse
• Intentional timesheet falsification
• Accumulated small daily discrepancies

Industry Impact

Time theft affects all industries but is particularly costly in retail, hospitality, construction, and healthcare where large hourly workforces and distributed operations make oversight difficult.

Prevention

Modern time tracking technologies can virtually eliminate time theft through biometric authentication (prevents buddy punching), GPS and geofencing (verifies location), automated tracking (removes human manipulation), real-time monitoring (detects issues immediately), and compliance alerts (flags anomalies).

ROI

Businesses implementing comprehensive time tracking typically see ROI within 3-6 months through reduced time theft, improved accuracy, and better payroll cost control.