Hours Calculator
Find the number of hours and minutes between a start and end time, minus any unpaid break — with decimal hours and pay estimates for payroll.
Time Worked
7h 30m
Decimal Hours
7.5
From 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, minus a 30-minute break, that's 7h 30m worked — 7.5 decimal hours for payroll.
Pay at Common Hourly Rates for 7h 30m
| Hourly Rate | Gross Pay |
|---|---|
| $15.00/hr | $112.50 |
| $18.00/hr | $135.00 |
| $20.00/hr | $150.00 |
| $22.50/hr | $168.75 |
| $25.00/hr | $187.50 |
| $30.00/hr | $225.00 |
| $35.00/hr | $262.50 |
| $50.00/hr | $375.00 |
What is an Hours Calculator?
An hours calculator finds the elapsed time between a start time and an end time — commonly used to figure out how long a work shift, appointment, or event lasted. An hour is defined as a period of 60 minutes; this calculator also converts the result into decimal hours (e.g. 7.5 instead of 7h 30m), the format most payroll and timesheet systems expect.
If the end time is earlier than the start time, the calculator assumes the period crosses midnight into the next day — useful for overnight shifts — rather than returning a negative result.
How Is Time Worked Calculated?
The calculator takes the raw elapsed time between your start and end time, then subtracts any unpaid break you enter — the same math a manual timesheet calculation would use, just automated.
The result is then converted to decimal hours by dividing the minutes portion by 60 — for example, 7 hours 30 minutes becomes 7.5 decimal hours. Payroll systems almost always use decimal hours rather than hours-and-minutes, since decimal values multiply cleanly against an hourly rate.
Why Decimal Hours Matter for Payroll
"7 hours and 30 minutes" can't be directly multiplied by an hourly rate — 30 minutes isn't 0.30 of an hour, it's 0.50 (30 ÷ 60). Converting to decimal hours before applying a rate avoids a common manual payroll mistake: treating minutes as if they were a decimal fraction directly (mistaking 7:30 for 7.30 hours instead of 7.5), which understates pay for any shift with a partial hour.
Common minute-to-decimal conversions: 15 minutes = 0.25, 20 minutes ≈ 0.33, 30 minutes = 0.50, 45 minutes = 0.75. This calculator handles the conversion automatically for any combination of hours and minutes, not just these round numbers.
Overnight Shifts and Unpaid Breaks
When an end time is earlier than the start time — for example, starting at 10 PM and ending at 6 AM — the calculator assumes the shift crosses midnight into the next calendar day, rather than returning a negative or nonsensical duration. This matches how overnight and night-shift work is almost always tracked in practice.
Unpaid breaks (lunch, rest periods that aren't compensated) are subtracted from the raw elapsed time before converting to decimal hours, since most employers pay only for time actually worked, not the full clock-in-to-clock-out span. Paid breaks, by contrast, should not be entered here — leave the break field at 0 if all your time is compensated.
Example — Your Current Inputs
From 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, minus a 30-minute break, that's 7h 30m worked — 7.5 decimal hours for payroll.
Additional Example — A Standard 9-to-5 Shift
A shift from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM spans exactly 8 hours. With a standard 30-minute unpaid lunch break, the actual time worked is 7 hours 30 minutes — 7.5 decimal hours. At $20/hour, that's $150.00 in gross pay for the day; over a standard 5-day work week, that's 37.5 hours and $750.00 before taxes and deductions.
Forgetting to subtract the lunch break in this example would overstate the day's pay by $10 — a small amount daily, but $50/week and roughly $2,600/year if it happened on every shift, which is exactly the kind of quiet payroll error this calculator is meant to catch.
About These Parameters
- Start Time & End Time
- The clock-in and clock-out times for the period you're measuring. If the end time is earlier in the day than the start time, it's treated as the following day (an overnight shift) rather than an error.
- Unpaid Break
- Any unpaid time — lunch, rest breaks — to subtract from the raw elapsed time. Only include breaks that are actually unpaid under your employer's policy; paid breaks should be left out of this field entirely.
- Hourly Rate
- Optional. If provided, estimates gross (pre-tax, pre-deduction) pay for the computed hours at this rate. The pay table also shows the same computed hours at several other common hourly rates for quick comparison.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I convert minutes to decimal hours manually?
Divide the minutes by 60. For example, 45 minutes ÷ 60 = 0.75, so "3 hours 45 minutes" becomes 3.75 decimal hours. This is the number payroll systems actually multiply against an hourly rate — never use the minutes directly as a decimal (45 minutes is not 0.45 hours).
Does this handle shifts that cross midnight?
Yes. If your end time is earlier in the day than your start time (like 11 PM to 7 AM), the calculator automatically treats it as spanning into the next day rather than producing a negative or incorrect result.
Should I include paid breaks in the "Unpaid Break" field?
No — only enter breaks that are genuinely unpaid under your employer's policy. Many short rest breaks (typically under 20 minutes in the US) are legally required to be paid, while longer meal breaks are commonly unpaid. Check your specific employer's policy, since this varies.
How is this different from the Time Calculator or Time Card Calculator?
The Time Calculator adds or subtracts arbitrary durations and converts between time units. This Hours Calculator is specifically built around a single start-time-to-end-time shift, with break deduction and payroll-focused decimal hours and pay estimates — the calculation most people actually need when figuring out "how long did I work today."