Hours Calculator
Work out hours worked for one shift or a whole week. Enter start and end times with unpaid breaks to get total hours, decimal hours, overtime over 40, and gross pay.
Enter start time, end time, and unpaid break for each day. Shifts that end after midnight are counted automatically.
Total hours (h:mm)
40:00
Total hours (decimal)
40.00
Regular hours
40.00
Overtime (over 40)
0.00
Adding up a team's hours every week? HiveDesk records clock-in and clock-out times automatically and totals each person's hours for payroll.
Track it automatically →Quick Answer
Hours worked for a day are the time from start to finish minus any unpaid break. Add the days together for the weekly total, and anything over 40 hours in a workweek is overtime for non-exempt employees.
Formula
Hours worked = (End time − Start time) − Unpaid breaks
- 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM with a 30-minute lunch is 7.50 hours (37.5 a week).
- 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM with a 30-minute lunch is 8.00 hours (40 a week).
- 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM with a 30-minute lunch is 10.00 hours (40 over four days).
- 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM with a 30-minute break is 7.50 hours.
How to Calculate Work Hours
- Write each start and end time in 24-hour format. Add 12 to any PM hour except 12 PM, so 4:30 PM becomes 16:30. This removes AM/PM mistakes from the subtraction.
- Subtract the start from the end. 16:30 − 8:00 = 8 hours 30 minutes. If the end minutes are smaller than the start minutes, borrow an hour as 60 minutes. If the shift ends after midnight, add 24 hours to the end time first.
- Subtract unpaid breaks. Take off meal breaks where the employee is fully relieved of duty. Leave short rest breaks in, because they are paid time.
- Convert to decimal hours. Divide the minutes by 60: 8 hours 15 minutes is 8.25 hours. Payroll multiplies decimal hours by the hourly rate, so 8.15 would be wrong.
- Add the days and split out overtime. Total the decimal hours for the workweek. Hours over 40 are paid at 1.5 times the regular rate for non-exempt employees.
Worked example: a contact center agent's week
An agent paid $18 an hour works five weekday shifts with lunch breaks, stays late twice, and covers a Saturday morning.
| Day | Start | End | Break | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 8:00 AM | 4:30 PM | 30 min | 8.00 |
| Tuesday | 8:00 AM | 5:15 PM | 30 min | 8.75 |
| Wednesday | 7:45 AM | 4:30 PM | 30 min | 8.25 |
| Thursday | 8:00 AM | 6:00 PM | 45 min | 9.25 |
| Friday | 8:00 AM | 4:30 PM | 30 min | 8.00 |
| Saturday | 9:00 AM | 1:00 PM | 0 min | 4.00 |
| Total | 46.25 | |||
That is 40.00 regular hours and 6.25 overtime hours. Pay is 40 × $18 = $720.00, plus 6.25 × $27.00 = $168.75 of overtime, for $888.75 gross. Enter the same week in the calculator above with an hourly rate of $18 to check it.
Hours for Common Work Schedules
Paid hours per shift after the unpaid break, and the weekly total if the same shift is worked five days.
| Schedule | Hours | Unpaid break | Per shift | Five shifts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard 9 to 5 | 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM | 30 min | 7.50 (7:30) | 37.50 |
| 9 to 5:30 with lunch | 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM | 30 min | 8.00 (8:00) | 40.00 |
| 8 to 5 with an hour lunch | 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM | 60 min | 8.00 (8:00) | 40.00 |
| 8:30 to 5 | 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM | 30 min | 8.00 (8:00) | 40.00 |
| 9 to 6 with an hour lunch | 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM | 60 min | 8.00 (8:00) | 40.00 |
| Early shift | 6:00 AM to 2:30 PM | 30 min | 8.00 (8:00) | 40.00 |
| Day shift | 7:00 AM to 3:30 PM | 30 min | 8.00 (8:00) | 40.00 |
| Second shift | 3:00 PM to 11:00 PM | 30 min | 7.50 (7:30) | 37.50 |
| Late shift | 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM | 30 min | 7.50 (7:30) | 37.50 |
| Night shift | 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM (next day) | 30 min | 7.50 (7:30) | 37.50 |
| Third shift | 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM (next day) | 30 min | 7.50 (7:30) | 37.50 |
| 10-hour shift | 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM | 30 min | 10.00 (10:00) | 50.00 |
| 12-hour day shift | 6:00 AM to 6:30 PM | 30 min | 12.00 (12:00) | 60.00 |
| 12-hour night shift | 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM (next day) | None | 12.00 (12:00) | 60.00 |
| Part-time mornings | 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM | None | 4.00 (4:00) | 20.00 |
What Counts as Hours Worked
The calculator totals the time you enter. Whether that time is payable depends on federal rules (29 CFR Part 785) and state law. For non-exempt employees, these are the items that most often change the answer:
| Time | Counted as hours worked? |
|---|---|
| Rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes | Yes. They must be paid. |
| Meal breaks of 30 minutes or more | No, if the employee is completely relieved of duty. Yes, if they must answer phones or stay at the desk. |
| Starting a computer and logging into required systems before the shift | Generally yes. The DOL treats it as the first principal activity of the day in call centers. |
| Required training and meetings | Yes, unless the training is voluntary, outside working hours, and not job-related. |
| Travel between work sites during the day | Yes. |
| Normal commute from home to work | No. |
| On-call time | Yes if the employee must stay on the premises or so close that they cannot use the time for themselves; usually no if they can go about their own business. |
| Work done before or after the shift without approval | Yes, if the employer knows or should know about it. Unapproved work still has to be paid; it can be handled as a disciplinary matter. |
Several states require meal or rest breaks that federal law does not; see the break time calculator for the common state rules and the US state labor law guides for each state.
Overtime: Weekly and Daily Rules
The calculator flags hours over 40 in the week, which is the federal rule. A workweek is any fixed, recurring period of seven consecutive days the employer chooses, and each week is calculated on its own. Hours cannot be averaged across a two-week pay period, so a biweekly timesheet needs a separate overtime check for each week.
A few states also count overtime by the day:
- California: 1.5 times pay after 8 hours in a day and 2 times after 12, plus rules for the seventh consecutive day of work.
- Alaska: 1.5 times pay after 8 hours in a day as well as after 40 in a week.
- Nevada: daily overtime after 8 hours in a 24-hour period for employees earning less than 1.5 times the state minimum wage.
- Colorado: 1.5 times pay after 12 hours in a day, 12 consecutive hours, or 40 in a week.
For time cards that apply California's daily rules automatically, use the time card calculator. To price overtime hours, use the time and a half calculator, and see overtime pay laws by state for the full rules.
Decimal Hours and Rounding
Payroll works in decimal hours. These are the minute values that come up most often:
5 minutes
0.08 hr
10 minutes
0.17 hr
15 minutes
0.25 hr
20 minutes
0.33 hr
30 minutes
0.50 hr
40 minutes
0.67 hr
45 minutes
0.75 hr
50 minutes
0.83 hr
Employers may round clock times to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth of an hour, or quarter hour, as long as the rounding averages out over time and does not consistently shortchange employees (29 CFR 785.48). Under quarter-hour rounding, 1 to 7 minutes round down and 8 to 14 round up. The minutes to decimal calculator has the full 1 to 60 minute chart.
Which Hours Calculator Do You Need?
HiveDesk has several free time calculators. Each one is built for a different job:
| If you need | Use |
|---|---|
| Hours for one shift or a whole week, with breaks and overtime | This hours calculator |
| The exact time between two times or two dates, or adding time to a clock time | Time duration calculator |
| What time to clock out to reach 8 hours | 8-hour workday calculator |
| A printable weekly or biweekly time card with rounding and state overtime rules | Time card calculator |
| A two-week timesheet with rounding and pay | Timesheet calculator |
| Payroll hours and gross pay for a weekly, biweekly, or semimonthly period | Payroll hours calculator |
From Calculating Hours to Tracking Them
A calculator is only as accurate as the times typed into it. Paper time sheets and end-of-week recall tend to produce round numbers: 9:00 to 5:00 every day, even when the real times were 8:52 to 5:11. Across a team, those small gaps add up in both directions, as unpaid pre-shift work the employer is liable for and as paid time nobody worked.
In contact centers the problem is sharper, because agents log in and out of phone queues, training, and after-call work many times a day. Automatic agent time tracking records the real start and end of each block of work and produces timesheets for approval, so weekly hours and overtime come from the record rather than from arithmetic.
Track Work Hours Automatically
HiveDesk records hours for every employee, flags overtime before payroll, and generates timesheets for approval. $5/user/month, 14-day free trial.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I calculate my work hours?
For each day, subtract your start time from your end time and then subtract any unpaid break. Convert the result to decimal hours by dividing the minutes by 60, then add the days together for the week. For example, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM with a 30-minute lunch is 8 hours, and five of those days is 40 hours.
How many hours is 9 to 5 with a 30-minute lunch?
9:00 AM to 5:00 PM is 8 hours. With a 30-minute unpaid lunch it is 7 hours 30 minutes, or 7.50 decimal hours, which is 37.5 hours over a five-day week. To be paid for 8 hours with a 30-minute lunch, the shift needs to run 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM.
How do I add up hours and minutes for a week?
Either convert every day to decimal hours and add the decimals, or add the hours and minutes separately and carry every 60 minutes into an hour. 7:45 + 8:30 + 8:15 is 23 hours and 90 minutes, which is 24 hours 30 minutes (24.50 hours). Converting first is less error-prone.
How is overtime calculated?
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, non-exempt employees earn 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. Each workweek stands alone: 45 hours one week and 35 the next is 5 hours of overtime, even though the two weeks average 40. California, Alaska, Nevada, and Colorado also have daily overtime rules.
Should I include lunch breaks in my work hours?
Deduct a meal break only if it is unpaid and you are fully relieved of duty, which usually means 30 minutes or longer. Short rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes count as paid work time under federal rules and should not be deducted.
Is time spent logging in before a shift paid?
Usually, yes. The Department of Labor's call center fact sheet (Fact Sheet #64) gives starting the computer to download work instructions, applications, and email as an example of the first principal activity of the day, so the workday, and paid time, starts when the agent starts that task rather than when they take the first call.
How do I calculate hours for an overnight shift?
Count the hours from the start time to midnight and from midnight to the end time, then subtract the break. 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM with a 30-minute break is 7.50 hours. The calculator does this automatically whenever the end time is earlier than the start time.
What is the difference between work time and hours worked?
In everyday use they mean the same thing. In law, "hours worked" is the paid time defined by the FLSA: all the time an employee is required to be on duty or at a prescribed workplace, plus time they are allowed to work, including short breaks and required pre-shift tasks. It can be longer than the time between the first and last task someone thinks of as work.
Related Guides
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