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Work Hours Calculator

Find your hours worked for a shift.

How it is calculated

Hours worked is the time between start and end minus the unpaid break: hours = (end − start − break) / 60, where times are clock times and the break is in minutes. The answer is in decimal hours, rounded to two places, which is the form payroll uses. If the end time is earlier than the start time the tool assumes the shift passes midnight and adds 24 hours. An empty or negative break counts as zero. If the break is longer than the shift there is no result. The tool treats a single shift; add up each day yourself for a weekly total.

Worked example

A shift from 08:30 to 17:15 with a 45 minute break. Elapsed time = 8 h 45 min = 525 minutes. Minus the break: 525 − 45 = 480 minutes. In hours, 480 / 60 = 8.00 h.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Reading 8.25 h as 8 hours 25 minutes: it is 8 hours and a quarter, which is 15 minutes.
  • Entering the break in hours (0.75) when the field takes minutes.
  • Forgetting that a paid break should not be subtracted.
  • Typing a 12-hour time without am or pm, so 5:15 is read as early morning, not 17:15.
  • Adding up several decimal results and then converting them back as if they were hours and minutes.

About this calculator

This calculator finds hours worked by taking the elapsed time between a start and end clock time and subtracting unpaid break minutes, then converts the result to decimal hours (e.g. 7 hours 30 minutes becomes 7.5) since that's the format most payroll systems expect.

It's used by hourly employees double-checking their paycheck, freelancers and contractors invoicing clients by the hour across a shift that crosses meal breaks, and small-business owners or HR staff manually totaling a timecard before entering it into payroll software.

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