Work Hours Calculator

Most US employers convert clock time to decimal hours before multiplying by your rate. An 8:00 AM to 4:42 PM shift with a 30-minute unpaid lunch is not 8 hours 12 minutes — it is 8.20 hours (492 minutes ÷ 60). Tenths and hundredths of an hour are what end up on your paystub, and even one rounding direction can shift your gross by a dollar or two each week.

Federal law (Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 CFR §785.48) lets employers round to the nearest quarter-hour as long as the rounding does not consistently favor the company. That is why some timeclocks treat 8:07 as 8:00 and 8:08 as 8:15. This calculator keeps the exact minute value, then converts to decimal hours, so you can spot a rounding discrepancy on your stub.

Suppose you work 9:00–17:30 Monday through Friday with a 30-minute unpaid lunch, plus a 7:00 AM–11:00 AM Saturday shift. Each weekday is 8.0 hours (510 minutes − 30 = 480 minutes ÷ 60). Saturday adds 4.0 hours. Total weekly hours: 44.0.

Under federal overtime rules, hours above 40 in a single workweek are paid at 1.5× your regular rate. At $25/hour, the first 40 hours pay $1,000 and the next 4 hours pay $150 (4 × $37.50), for a gross of $1,150 before taxes and benefits. State rules can be stricter — California, for example, also requires daily overtime above 8 hours in any single shift.

If your employer rounds to the nearest quarter-hour and your shifts consistently end at xx:53 or xx:07, ask payroll for an audit. Over a year a chronic 7-minute round-down adds up to roughly 30 unpaid hours.

Counting paid breaks as unpaid (or vice versa). Federal law does not require meal breaks, but if your state or contract gives you a paid 15-minute rest break, do not deduct it. Only deduct unpaid time when you are fully relieved of duty.

Ignoring travel between job sites. Time spent driving between two work locations during the workday is compensable. Commute from home to your first site is not.

Mixing exempt and non-exempt time. If you have a salaried day job and a separate hourly gig, only the hourly side gets overtime calculations. Track them on different timesheets.

Forgetting overnight shifts. A shift that starts at 23:00 and ends at 07:30 with a 30-minute break is 8.0 hours. The calculator detects the cross-midnight case automatically and adds 24 hours when the end time is earlier than the start.

5 minutes = 0.083 hours. 10 minutes = 0.167. 15 minutes = 0.25 (the federally-allowed rounding unit). 20 minutes = 0.333. 30 minutes = 0.5. 45 minutes = 0.75.

When converting minute-based timecards to a payroll system, always carry at least two decimal places of precision. Rounding 0.167 to 0.17 over 250 work days a year adds up to 0.75 hours per year — meaningful at a $40/hour rate.

Most payroll software (ADP, Gusto, QuickBooks, Paychex) stores time internally as decimal hours to 4 decimal places and only displays 2. If your timesheet shows 8.00 but you actually worked 8 hours 4 minutes (8.067), the stored value is the precise figure even though the display rounds. Ask for a 'detailed earnings statement' if you want to audit the underlying numbers.

Overtime threshold. The federal FLSA requires 1.5× pay for hours over 40 in a workweek. Eight states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, plus Connecticut and Kentucky in specific industries) also require daily overtime above 8 hours per shift. California adds double-time after 12 hours in a single shift and after 8 hours on the seventh consecutive workday.

Meal breaks. Federal law does not mandate meal breaks. About 20 states do, most commonly a 30-minute unpaid meal break for shifts of 5 hours or longer. New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois all require it; Texas and Florida do not. If your state mandates a break that the employer fails to provide, the unpaid time often becomes payable under state law.

Rest breaks. About a dozen states require paid 10-minute rest breaks every 4 hours. These count toward hours worked, so do not deduct them from your timesheet.

Minor labor restrictions. Workers under 18 face stricter daily-hour caps that vary widely by state — Massachusetts limits 16-year-olds to 9 hours a day during the school year; Nevada to 8.

Posted wage rates. Federal law requires employers to display the FLSA poster in a conspicuous workplace location. If your employer is not posting it, that is itself a violation and worth reporting to the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.