Sales
Work Hours Calculator
Enter the start time, end time, and any unpaid break for each shift to calculate the hours you worked. See daily and weekly totals in hours and minutes and in decimal hours.
Fill in only the days you worked. Overnight and split shifts are supported.
Enter your shifts
Leave days empty if you did not work. An end time earlier than the start time counts as an overnight shift.
Results
Total work hours
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Enter a start and end time for at least one shift.
Decimal hours
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Total minutes ÷ 60, rounded to two decimal places for display.
Daily totals
- Monday
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- Tuesday
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- Wednesday
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- Thursday
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- Friday
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- Saturday
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- Sunday
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Results show time only, based on the times entered. They do not calculate pay, overtime, or taxes.
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Method
How to calculate work hours
Each shift's worked time is the time between its start and end, minus its unpaid break. The calculator converts every time to minutes after midnight, so 9:00 AM becomes 540 and 5:30 PM becomes 1,050. Subtracting gives 510 elapsed minutes, and removing a 30-minute break leaves 480 worked minutes. Daily and weekly totals add these whole minutes together before anything is converted to hours.
Formula
Elapsed time = End time − Start time (If the end time is earlier than the start time, the end is on the next day: Elapsed = (24 × 60 − Start minutes) + End minutes) Worked minutes = Elapsed minutes − Unpaid break minutes Daily total = Sum of worked minutes for that day's shifts Weekly total = Sum of daily totals Hours = floor(Total minutes ÷ 60) Minutes = Total minutes mod 60 Decimal hours = Total minutes ÷ 60
Assumptions
- Times are the exact minutes entered. No automatic rounding to 5, 6, 10, or 15 minutes is applied.
- An end time earlier than the start time is treated as ending the next day. Equal start and end times count as 0 minutes, not 24 hours.
- An overnight shift counts toward the day on which it starts, and the weekly total covers shifts that start Monday to Sunday.
- Only unpaid breaks entered for a shift are subtracted. A break cannot be negative or longer than the shift.
- Overlapping shifts are excluded from the totals until the times are corrected; they are never merged automatically.
Every calculation uses whole minutes, and totals are added before converting to hours, so rounding never builds up across shifts or days. Decimal hours are rounded to two decimal places for display only.
How to interpret the result
The main result is the total time worked across every valid shift, shown in hours and minutes and as decimal hours. Use the hours-and-minutes figure when you think in clock time, and the decimal figure when a timesheet, invoice, or payroll form asks for hours as a number. The result is time only: it does not calculate pay, overtime, or taxes, and it does not apply any employment rule.
How to use the Work Hours Calculator
1. Enter your start time. 2. Enter your end time. 3. Add any unpaid break in minutes, or leave it empty for no break. 4. Use “Add shift” if you worked more than one shift that day. 5. Review the daily totals and the weekly total.
You do not need to fill in all seven days. Days you leave empty count as zero, and a shift is only included once both its start and end time are entered.
How to calculate work hours with a lunch break
Enter an unpaid lunch or rest break in the break field and the calculator subtracts it from the shift. A 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM shift with a 45-minute unpaid lunch is 480 − 45 = 435 minutes, or 7 hours 15 minutes (7.25 decimal hours).
Leave paid breaks out of the break field, because paid time is normally counted as time worked. Whether a particular break is paid depends on your employer and the rules that apply to you; this calculator does not decide that.
Common Work Shift Examples
Elapsed time is the clock time from start to end; hours worked is elapsed time minus any unpaid break, so the two differ whenever breaks are unpaid.
8:00 AM–5:00 PM: 9 hours elapsed, 60-minute unpaid break, 8.00 hours worked.
9:00 AM–5:00 PM: 8 hours elapsed, 30-minute unpaid break, 7.50 hours worked.
7:00 AM–3:30 PM: 8 hours 30 minutes elapsed, 30-minute unpaid break, 8.00 hours worked.
How to calculate overnight work hours
A shift from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM runs 2 hours before midnight and 6 hours after it, for 8 hours before any unpaid break. The calculator shows “Ends next day” so the interpretation is always visible.
An overnight shift counts toward the day on which it starts. A Monday night shift that ends on Tuesday morning appears in Monday's total and is not split across two days.
Hours and minutes vs decimal hours
Clock time uses 60 minutes per hour, while decimal hours use fractions of 1. That is why 7 hours 30 minutes is 7.50 decimal hours, 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75, and 8 hours 10 minutes is about 8.17.
A common mistake is to write 8 hours 30 minutes as 8.30. The correct decimal value is 8.50, because 30 minutes is half an hour. To convert, divide total minutes by 60: 465 minutes ÷ 60 = 7.75 hours, and 15 minutes ÷ 60 = 0.25 hours.
Convert the final total rather than each shift. Adding already-rounded decimals can drift: three shifts of 8 hours 10 minutes are 1,470 minutes, or 24.50 hours, but adding three rounded 8.17 values gives 24.51.
Weekly work hours
The weekly total is the sum of the seven daily totals, and each daily total is the sum of that day's valid shifts. The week runs Monday to Sunday and includes every shift that starts within it, even if a Sunday night shift finishes after the week ends.
Split shifts
If you work in separate blocks, such as 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM, add a second shift to that day. Each shift can have its own unpaid break, and the day total adds them together: 4 hours + 4 hours = 8 hours.
Shifts must not overlap, including an overnight shift that runs into the next day's first shift. Overlapping shifts are highlighted and left out of the totals until the times are corrected. Shifts that touch, such as one ending at 1:00 PM and the next starting at 1:00 PM, are fine.
Limitations
This calculator measures elapsed work time and subtracts the unpaid breaks you enter. It does not determine wages, calculate payroll or taxes, decide overtime eligibility, apply employment-law rules, or round time punches automatically.
Check your employer's timekeeping policy for how your hours are recorded and paid.
Minutes to decimal hours
Common minute values and their decimal-hour equivalents (minutes ÷ 60).
| Measure | Formula | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| 15 minutes | 15 ÷ 60 | 0.25 hours |
| 30 minutes | 30 ÷ 60 | 0.50 hours |
| 45 minutes | 45 ÷ 60 | 0.75 hours |
| 10 minutes | 10 ÷ 60 | ≈ 0.17 hours |
| 8 hours 30 minutes | 510 ÷ 60 | 8.50 hours (not 8.30) |
| 7 hours 45 minutes | 465 ÷ 60 | 7.75 hours |
Frequently asked questions
Which calculator do you need?
- Want to see how a raise changes the pay for those hours? Use the Pay Raise Calculator.
- Earning commission for the time you put in? Estimate it with the Commission Calculator.
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