Hours Worked Calculator

Find the elapsed hours between two clock times and deduct unpaid lunch breaks for employee timesheets.

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Enter your daily start time, end time, and any break durations below to calculate the total decimal hours worked.

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A Guide to Logging Work Hours and Timesheets

Tracking elapsed work hours is a fundamental requirement for payroll systems, client invoices, and project budgets. Calculating hours worked manually can be challenging due to AM and PM transitions, crossing the midnight boundary, and converting minutes into decimal format. An online hours calculator simplifies this task by processing clock inputs, subtracting unpaid breaks, and outputting both standard time and decimal equivalents.

How Work Hours are Logged

To calculate total hours worked, the calculator finds the difference between the start time and the end time, adjusting for 12-hour AM/PM formats or 24-hour military times. Next, it subtracts any unpaid rest or lunch breaks from this interval.

If your work shift crosses midnight (for example, starting at 10:00 PM and ending at 6:00 AM the next day), the calculator adds 24 hours to the end time before subtracting to resolve the negative interval. For adding up split durations or playtimes, use our dedicated converting clock times tool. To see differences between calendar dates, check our date differences tool. For calculating ages, use our exact age calculator tool.

Everyday Applications

Employee Timesheets: Hourly workers log shift times to submit accurate weekly timecards for payroll processing.
Client Billing: Consultants, lawyers, and freelancers log billable hours for project invoicing, which you can verify alongside our standard daily math helper.
Commercial Logistics: Truck drivers track daily driving logs to remain within safety hours-of-service regulations.
Project Management: Managers track project hours to see if tasks are completing within budget, scaling values with our rounding decimals and digits tool.

Converting Minutes to Decimal Hours

To calculate payroll pay, you must convert minutes into decimal values. Because there are 60 minutes in an hour, you divide the minutes by 60.

For example, 15 minutes is 15/60 = 0.25 hours, 30 minutes is 0.50 hours, and 45 minutes is 0.75 hours. An employee working 8 hours and 15 minutes is paid for exactly 8.25 hours. Multiplying the hourly rate by 8.25 ensures accurate compensation, which our online tool automates instantly.

Many companies also apply the "7-minute rule" for rounding employee times. Under this guideline, clock times within the first 7 minutes of a quarter-hour interval are rounded down, while times from 8 to 14 minutes are rounded up. For example, logging in at 8:07 AM rounds to 8:00 AM, while logging in at 8:08 AM rounds to 8:15 AM.

Example of a Standard Work Shift

Suppose an employee starts work at 8:30 AM, takes a 45-minute unpaid lunch break, and logs out at 5:15 PM.

First, calculate the gross elapsed time: from 8:30 AM to 5:15 PM is exactly 8 hours and 45 minutes. Next, convert 45 minutes to decimal: 45 / 60 = 0.75 hours, giving a gross duration of 8.75 hours. Next, deduct the unpaid lunch break: 45 minutes is 0.75 hours. Subtracting the break: 8.75 - 0.75 = 8.00 hours. The net hours worked is exactly 8.00 hours. This simple calculation prevents payment discrepancies on weekly payroll runs.