HOURS CALCULATOR
Enter a start and end time to get the hours and minutes between them — subtract a break, see the decimal hours payroll uses, and optionally turn it into pay. Works across midnight.
–hours worked
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⏱️ Turning Clock Times Into Hours You Can Use
🌙 Shifts That Cross Midnight
If the end time is earlier than the start time, this calculator assumes the shift ran overnight and adds a day — so 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM correctly reads as 8 hours, not a negative number. That's the single most common place hand-math goes wrong on a timesheet. If a shift is genuinely longer than 24 hours, split it into separate entries.
🍽️ Whether the Break Is Paid Isn't Universal
Subtracting a break here gives you worked hours, but whether that break is paid depends on the rules that apply to you. Under U.S. federal law short breaks (roughly 5–20 minutes) are typically paid, while a genuine meal break of 30+ minutes usually isn't — and several states add their own requirements. This tool does the arithmetic; it doesn't decide which breaks your employer counts, so check the policy that governs your timesheet.
🔢 Decimal Hours vs. Hours-and-Minutes
Payroll systems run on decimal hours, not minutes: 8 hours 30 minutes is 8.5 hours, because 30 minutes is half an hour. The trap is the middle — 8 hours 20 minutes is 8.33 hours, not 8.20. This calculator shows both forms so you can enter the decimal figure a payroll sheet expects and still see the human-readable hours-and-minutes.
🕐 The 7-Minute Rounding Rule
Many U.S. employers legally round clock-in times to the nearest quarter-hour using the "7-minute rule": 1–7 minutes past the quarter round down, 8–14 round up. Over a single day it's noise, but across a year of shifts consistent rounding in one direction adds up. This page gives you the exact, unrounded figure — a useful check against what a timeclock reports. Turning hours into a bigger savings goal? Our savings calculator shows what a set amount grows into.