Everyday money
Hours Calculator
Enter a start time, an end time and any unpaid break, and this calculator returns the hours worked two ways: as hours and minutes, and as the decimal figure payroll systems want. It handles the cases that trip people up on paper: shifts that cross midnight, breaks that push a clean 9-to-5 under eight hours, and the minutes-to-decimal conversion where 7 hours 30 minutes must become 7.5 rather than 7.30. Add your days per week to project a weekly total, and an hourly rate if you want the shift priced out. Everything runs in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Your shift
decimal hours, break deducted
Exact time, no rounding. Gross pay before taxes and deductions; for general information only.
How the hours calculator works
The tool converts both clock times to minutes since midnight and subtracts. If the end value is smaller than the start value, the shift crossed midnight, so it adds 24 hours before subtracting. Unpaid break minutes come off the total, and the result is reported both as hours and minutes and as a decimal.
Method
minutes = (end − start) + 1440 if negative worked = minutes − break decimal hours = worked ÷ 601440 = minutes in a day; a 9:00 to 17:00 shift is 480 minutes before breaks
Notes & assumptions
- End times earlier than start times are treated as next-day (overnight) shifts.
- Enter only unpaid break minutes; paid rest breaks stay in the total.
- No rounding is applied; see the 7-minute rule FAQ for how employers may round.
- Pay figures are gross wages before taxes; verify against your pay stub.
Minutes to decimal hours table
Payroll software multiplies decimal hours by an hourly rate, so 7 hours 30 minutes must be entered as 7.50, never 7.30. The conversion is minutes divided by 60. This table covers every 5-minute step; combine it with whole hours to convert any duration.
| Minutes | Decimal hours | Minutes | Decimal hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 min | 0.08 | 35 min | 0.58 |
| 10 min | 0.17 | 40 min | 0.67 |
| 15 min | 0.25 | 45 min | 0.75 |
| 20 min | 0.33 | 50 min | 0.83 |
| 25 min | 0.42 | 55 min | 0.92 |
| 30 min | 0.50 | 60 min | 1.00 |
The quarter-hour values are exact (15 minutes is exactly 0.25 hours) while the others are rounded to two decimals: 20 minutes is 0.3333 carried at full precision inside the calculator but displayed as 0.33. For a shift of 7 hours 20 minutes, read the 20-minute row and add it to 7 to get 7.33 decimal hours.
Common shift lengths, worked out
Most US schedules reduce to a handful of patterns. Each row shows the clock times, the unpaid break, and what actually lands on the timesheet, so you can sanity-check a pay stub without retyping anything.
| Shift | Unpaid break | Paid hours | Weekly at 5 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM | 30 min | 7.50 | 37.50 h |
| 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM | 30 min | 8.00 | 40.00 h |
| 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM | 30 min | 8.00 | 40.00 h |
| 8:30 AM to 5:15 PM | 45 min | 8.00 | 40.00 h |
| 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM (4-day week) | 30 min | 10.00 | 40.00 h at 4 days |
| 7:00 AM to 7:30 PM (3-day week) | 30 min | 12.00 | 36.00 h at 3 days |
| 10:00 PM to 6:30 AM (overnight) | 30 min | 8.00 | 40.00 h |
The first row explains a payroll surprise that comes up constantly: a literal 9-to-5 with an unpaid half-hour lunch is a 37.5-hour week, not 40. Offices that pay for 40 hours either schedule 9:00 to 5:30 or treat the lunch as paid. Compressed schedules hit 40 differently: four 10-hour days, or the 12-hour three-day pattern common in nursing that totals 36 hours plus a makeup shift every other week.
Worked example
Take a common retail shift: 8:30 AM to 5:15 PM with a 45-minute unpaid lunch. The clock span is 17:15 minus 8:30, which is 8 hours 45 minutes, or 8.75 in decimal. Subtract the 0.75-hour lunch and the hours worked come to exactly 8.00. Now an overnight example: 10:00 PM to 6:30 AM with a 30-minute break. Because 6:30 is earlier than 22:00 the tool adds 24 hours, giving a span of 8 hours 30 minutes; minus the break, again 8.00 hours worked.
Pricing a week: suppose your timesheet totals 38.75 decimal hours and you earn $18.50 an hour. Gross pay is 38.75 × 18.50 = $716.88 (716.875 rounded to the cent). Doing the same math with 38.45, the number you get if you wrongly type 38 hours 45 minutes as a decimal, would shortchange the week by more than five dollars, which is exactly why the decimal conversion matters.
Why payroll runs on decimal hours
Wages are a multiplication, and multiplication needs one number, not two. Hours-and-minutes is a mixed base: hours are base 10 but minutes are base 60, so 8h 45m × $18.50 cannot be computed directly. Payroll systems therefore store time as a single decimal, 8.75, and multiply. The failure mode is treating the minutes as decimals, typing 8.45 instead of 8.75. On one shift that error is 0.30 hours, which at $18.50 an hour is $5.55 of unpaid time; across a 5-day week it grows to $27.75. If you audit one thing on a new employer's pay stub, make it this conversion.
The reverse conversion matters when reading the tool's output back onto a schedule: multiply the decimal fraction by 60. A weekly total of 38.75 hours is 38 whole hours plus 0.75 × 60 = 45 minutes. Both directions are just the same divide-or-multiply by 60, and the table above covers the values that appear on real timesheets.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate hours worked?
Subtract the start time from the end time, then subtract any unpaid break. Working 8:30 AM to 5:15 PM is 8 hours 45 minutes; take out a 45-minute lunch and you worked exactly 8 hours. Convert leftover minutes to a decimal by dividing by 60 when your payroll system wants decimal hours.
How do I convert minutes to decimal hours?
Divide the minutes by 60. So 15 minutes is 0.25 hours, 30 minutes is 0.50, and 45 minutes is 0.75. A 7 hour 20 minute shift is 7 + 20 ÷ 60 = 7.33 hours. The conversion table on this page lists every 5-minute step so you can read the value straight off.
How does the calculator handle overnight shifts?
When the end time is earlier than the start time, the tool assumes the shift crossed midnight and adds 24 hours. A 10:00 PM to 6:30 AM shift counts as 8 hours 30 minutes, and a 30-minute break brings it to 8 hours even. No special input is needed; just enter the clock times.
What is the 7-minute rule for timesheets?
US employers are allowed to round punches to the nearest quarter hour. Under the common convention, 1 to 7 minutes past the quarter round down and 8 to 14 minutes round up, so clocking in at 9:07 can be paid as 9:00 while 9:08 becomes 9:15. Rounding must be neutral over time; it cannot always favor the employer. This calculator does not round, it reports exact time.
How many work hours are in a week and a year?
A standard US full-time schedule is 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, which is 40 hours weekly. Over 52 weeks that is 40 × 52 = 2,080 hours a year before subtracting holidays and vacation. Payroll departments use 2,080 to convert an annual salary to an hourly equivalent.
Are lunch breaks paid or unpaid?
Under federal rules, short breaks of roughly 5 to 20 minutes are normally paid work time, while a genuine meal break of 30 minutes or more can be unpaid if you are fully relieved of duties. States add their own requirements on top, so check local law. Enter only unpaid break minutes in this tool so paid rest breaks stay in your total.
When does overtime start?
Federal law (the FLSA) requires overtime at 1.5 times the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek for non-exempt employees. Some states go further; California adds daily overtime after 8 hours in a day. This calculator shows your weekly total so you can see how close a schedule comes to the 40-hour line, but it does not compute overtime pay itself.