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Work Hours Calculator

By Muddasir Riaz · Updated November 12, 2026

Enter your clock-in time, clock-out time and unpaid lunch break to see your daily hours, weekly hours, overtime and estimated gross pay. It works for day shifts and overnight shifts.

How to use the work hours calculator

1. Enter your clock-in and clock-out times. Use the exact times from your time clock, schedule or timesheet.
2. Enter your unpaid break in minutes. Use 30 for a half-hour lunch, 60 for an hour, or 0 if you are paid for your breaks.
3. Enter how many days you work each week. The calculator assumes you work the same shift every day.
4. Add your hourly rate if you want pay. This is optional. Leave it blank if you only need hours.
5. Press Calculate hours. You will see daily hours, weekly hours, overtime hours and an estimate of gross pay before taxes.

How do you calculate hours worked?

The formula is simple:

Hours worked = (clock out − clock in) − unpaid break

To do it by hand, convert each time to minutes after midnight, subtract, take off the break, and divide by 60. A shift from 8:15 AM to 4:45 PM is 495 minutes to 1,005 minutes, which is 510 minutes. Take off a 30-minute lunch and you have 480 minutes, or 8 hours. Weekly hours are your daily hours multiplied by the number of days you work. If your total goes above 40 in a workweek, the extra hours are overtime for most non-exempt employees.

Work hours examples

The table below uses this calculator's own formula. Weekly pay uses time-and-a-half for any hours above 40 and is before taxes.

Notice the third row. Working 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM with an hour off is a 10-hour day. Over five days that is 50 hours, so 10 of them are paid at 1.5 times the normal rate. Small changes in your daily schedule can add up to a lot of overtime across the week.

How do you calculate work hours with a lunch break?

Subtract your clock-in time from your clock-out time, then subtract the unpaid lunch. A 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM day is 8 hours on the clock. With a 30-minute unpaid lunch you worked 7.5 hours (7 h 30 min), and with a 60-minute unpaid lunch you worked 7 hours. The formula is hours worked = clock out − clock in − unpaid lunch. The calculator above does this for you: enter the lunch in the break box in minutes.

Only unpaid lunch comes off. Under the Department of Labor's rules, a meal period of 30 minutes or more is not work time if you are completely relieved of duty. If you have to answer calls, watch the counter or stay at your desk, the lunch is usually paid and should not be subtracted. Short rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes are paid and count as hours worked.

For a whole week with a different lunch every day, use the Time Card Calculator. It takes a clock-in time, clock-out time and lunch break for each day.

Hourly labor calculator: how do you calculate labor hours and labor cost?

Labor hours are the total hours your team works in a period. Labor cost is those hours multiplied by each hourly rate. Employers and managers use this to plan a schedule and budget a week of wages.

Labor cost = total hours worked × hourly rate (plus overtime at 1.5 times the rate for hours over 40 per employee in a workweek).

1. Calculate each person's hours with this calculator, including unpaid lunch.
2. Multiply by that person's hourly rate to get their gross wages.
3. Add the wages of all employees to get the total labor cost for the week.
4. Add employer payroll taxes. The employer share of Social Security and Medicare is 7.65% of wages (6.2% + 1.45%). Other costs such as unemployment insurance and workers' compensation vary by state and employer, so they are not included below.

For example, five employees working 40 hours at $18 an hour is 200 labor hours and $3,600 in wages before employer taxes. To check one employee's weekly pay and overtime, enter their times and rate in the calculator above. To see what an hourly rate is worth over a year, use the Hourly to Salary Calculator.

What time does a 10-hour shift starting at 9 AM end?

A 10-hour shift that starts at 9:00 AM ends at 7:00 PM. With a 30-minute unpaid lunch it ends at 7:30 PM, and with a 60-minute unpaid lunch it ends at 8:00 PM, if you still need to work 10 hours. The formula is: end time = start time + hours to work + unpaid breaks.

Example: start 9:00 AM, work 10 hours, take 30 minutes unpaid lunch. 9:00 AM + 10 hours = 7:00 PM, and adding 30 minutes gives 7:30 PM.

Be careful with the wording. A 10-hour shift from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM with a 60-minute unpaid lunch is only 9 hours of paid work. If your employer says your shift is 10 hours, ask whether that number includes the lunch. To check your own times, enter them in the calculator above and read the daily hours.

What time does an 8-hour or 12-hour shift end?

Use the same formula for any shift length: end time = start time + shift hours + unpaid breaks. An 8-hour shift starting at 8:00 AM ends at 4:00 PM with no break, 4:30 PM with a 30-minute unpaid lunch and 5:00 PM with a 60-minute unpaid lunch. A 12-hour shift starting at 7:00 AM ends at 7:00 PM with no break.

Night shifts that start in the evening end the next morning. A 12-hour shift starting at 7:00 PM ends at 7:00 AM. The calculator above handles this: enter the start time as clock in and the end time as clock out, and it adds 24 hours when the clock-out time is earlier.

How many hours do I work per week?

The formula is hours per week = hours per day × days per week. Use your hours after unpaid breaks. For example, an 8-hour day for 5 days is 40 hours a week, and a 10-hour day for 4 days is also 40 hours. Multiply by 52 to get the hours you work in a year. Full-time work at 40 hours a week is 2,080 hours a year.

To turn your hours into yearly pay, use the Hourly to Salary Calculator.

If your hours change from day to day, add up each day instead. Our Time Card Calculator takes a clock-in time, clock-out time and break for every day of the week and gives you the weekly total.

How do you calculate a 40-hour work week?

A 40-hour work week is your paid hours per day multiplied by your days. Count the hours after unpaid lunch. Eight hours a day for five days is 40 hours, so a schedule of 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM with a 30-minute unpaid lunch is exactly 40 hours. Four days of 10 hours is also 40 hours. Anything above 40 hours in a workweek is generally overtime for non-exempt employees, which you can check with the Overtime Calculator.

How many hours do I work per month?

There are about 4.33 weeks in a month (52 weeks divided by 12). Multiply your weekly hours by 52 and divide by 12 to get your average monthly hours. A full-time job of 40 hours a week is about 173.33 hours a month. Months with five weeks and months with four weeks will differ, so use this as an average.

Work hours chart: how do you convert minutes to decimal hours?

Payroll systems usually want hours in decimals, not hours and minutes. To convert, divide the minutes by 60 and add the result to the whole hours. For example, 7 hours and 45 minutes is 7 + 45/60 = 7.75 hours. Here are the conversions people use most:

A common mistake is to write 7 hours 45 minutes as 7.45. That is wrong, because there are 60 minutes in an hour, not 100. Written correctly, 7:45 is 7.75 hours, and the difference matters when you multiply by an hourly rate. At $20 an hour, 7.45 hours pays $149.00 but 7.75 hours pays $155.00.

How do you calculate hours for an overnight or night shift?

When your shift crosses midnight, the clock-out time looks earlier than the clock-in time. This calculator detects that and adds 24 hours to the clock-out time. For example, 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM is 8 hours on the clock. With a 30-minute unpaid break you worked 7.5 hours. By hand you can do the same thing in two parts: 10:00 PM to midnight is 2 hours, and midnight to 6:00 AM is 6 hours, for 8 hours in total.

Overnight shifts can also split across two calendar days within one workweek. Employers normally assign the whole shift to the day it started, but check your pay policy if your workweek resets on a night you work.

How does overtime work in the United States?

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires most non-exempt employees to be paid at least one and a half times their regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. The workweek is a fixed period of seven days in a row (168 hours), and it does not have to start on Monday. Your employer chooses the start day and time and applies it consistently.

• Overtime is based on the workweek, not the pay period. Two weeks of 45 hours is 10 hours of overtime, even if you are paid every two weeks.
• Exempt employees do not get overtime. Exempt status depends on being paid a salary and on doing certain kinds of duties. A job title alone does not make someone exempt.
• Some states have extra rules. California, for example, requires overtime after 8 hours in a single day for most non-exempt workers. Several other states have their own daily or weekly rules. The more generous rule generally applies to you.
• Overtime uses your regular rate. The regular rate can include things like some bonuses and shift differentials, not only your base hourly wage. This calculator uses the single hourly rate you type in.

To see the exact pay for your week, including California-style daily overtime and double time, use our Overtime Calculator.

Are breaks paid or unpaid?

Federal law does not require employers to give meal or rest breaks. When an employer does offer them, the rule from the U.S. Department of Labor is straightforward. Short rest breaks, usually 5 to 20 minutes, are paid and count as hours worked. Bona fide meal periods, usually 30 minutes or longer, can be unpaid as long as you are fully relieved of duty. If you have to keep working or stay at your desk through lunch, that time generally counts as work time and should be paid. Many states set their own meal and rest break requirements, so look up your state's labor department for the exact rules.

What is the 7-minute rule for rounding time?

Some employers round clock times to the nearest quarter hour. Under the 7-minute rule, 1 to 7 minutes past a quarter hour is rounded down, and 8 to 14 minutes is rounded up. For example, clocking in at 8:07 becomes 8:00 and clocking in at 8:08 becomes 8:15. The Department of Labor allows rounding as long as it averages out over time so that employees are paid for all the time they actually work. If your employer always rounds in the company's favor, that can be a problem. This calculator does not round, so it shows your exact time. The Time Card Calculator also shows exact time, so you can compare it with your pay stub.

Common mistakes when calculating work hours

• Forgetting the unpaid break. Subtracting nothing for lunch overstates your hours and your pay.
• Treating paid breaks as unpaid. If your short breaks are paid, do not subtract them.
• Writing minutes as a decimal. 7:30 is 7.5 hours, not 7.30 hours.
• Mixing up AM and PM. A shift that is one hour longer than expected is often a PM typed as AM.
• Averaging two weeks. Overtime is calculated per workweek, so 30 hours one week and 50 the next is not 40 on average.
• Ignoring off-the-clock work. Work you do before clocking in or after clocking out is usually time you should be paid for.

Tips for tracking your hours accurately

Record your start and end times as they happen, not from memory at the end of the week. Write down your break length every day, since it often changes. Keep your own copy of your hours, such as a note on your phone or a simple spreadsheet, so you can compare it with your pay stub. If you find a gap between your records and your pay, bring the dates and times to your payroll or HR department first. The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor can help if the problem is not fixed. If your hours change every day, our Time Card Calculator totals a whole week for you.

Frequently asked questions

More free calculators

Time Card CalculatorWeekly timesheet with lunch breaks: total hours, overtime and pay.

Overtime CalculatorTime-and-a-half and double-time pay, with federal and California daily rules.

Hours Between Times CalculatorHow many hours is 8 to 5? Hours and minutes between any two times.

Lunch Break CalculatorFind when lunch ends and your paid hours with a 30, 45 or 60 minute lunch.

California Overtime CalculatorDaily overtime, double time and 7th-day pay under California law.

Hourly to Salary CalculatorConvert an hourly rate to yearly, monthly, biweekly and weekly pay.

Salary to Hourly CalculatorConvert a yearly, monthly or weekly salary to an hourly rate.

BMI CalculatorBMI in feet, inches and pounds or cm and kg, with your healthy weight range.

Paycheck CalculatorEstimate take-home pay after federal tax, state tax, FICA and deductions.

Sources and further reading

• U.S. Department of Labor: Fact Sheet #22, Hours Worked Under the FLSA
• U.S. Department of Labor: Fact Sheet #23, Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA

This calculator gives estimates for information only. It is not financial, tax, legal or medical advice. Found a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.