Hours Calculator: Work Hours Between Times

How to use the hours calculator

Enter a start and an end time on each row. Type them the way you would say them: 9, 9:30, 9:30 pm, 930p, 21:30, noon and midnight all work, and the field is tidied into your chosen 12-hour or 24-hour format when you move on. Add a row for every shift or time block, such as each day of a week, and the total at the bottom adds them all up.

Put unpaid break time in the break column, in minutes. In the United States, the federal rules generally treat short rest breaks of 5 to 20 minutes as paid work time, while a real meal break, usually 30 minutes or more with no duties, can be unpaid (29 CFR 785.18 and 785.19). Leave paid breaks out.

Add an hourly rate to see gross pay before tax. Pay is worked out from the exact minutes, not from the rounded decimal, so 8:20 at 15.00 an hour pays 125.00, while 8.33 × 15 would give 124.95. For overtime, use the time card calculator.

Overnight shifts

When the end time is earlier than the start time, the calculator assumes the shift ends the next day: 10:00 PM to 6:30 AM is 8 hours 30 minutes. A row with the same start and end counts as zero, so enter 24:00 as the end for a full 24-hour shift. Split anything longer than 24 hours into two rows.

Converting minutes to decimal hours

Payroll and invoicing systems usually want decimal hours. Divide the minutes by 60 and add them to the whole hours: 7:45 is 7 + 45 ÷ 60 = 7.75 hours, and 8:20 is 8.3333… hours, which rounds to 8.33. Only multiples of 3 minutes convert to an exact two-digit decimal; the others repeat forever, so the calculator shows when it has rounded.

Time clock rounding and the 7-minute rule

Some employers round clock-in and clock-out times. US federal rules allow rounding to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth of an hour or quarter hour, as long as it averages out over time and does not end up underpaying employees (29 CFR 785.48). Choose a rounding option to see what each row counts after rounding; the break is not rounded.

With the 7-minute rule, a punch at 8:07 counts as 8:00 and a punch at 8:08 counts as 8:15. Rules vary: some states and courts restrict rounding, some employers round only in the worker’s favour, and many pay to the exact minute. Check your employer’s written policy and local law, and keep No rounding selected to see the time you actually worked.