Understanding your shift length
The bands below describe the length of the shift itself, not its legality. Working-time limits, mandatory rest breaks and overtime thresholds differ by country, state and contract, and this calculator does not apply any of them.
| Decimal hours | Band | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Below 7.00 | Short shift | Under a conventional full day |
| 7.00 – 8.50 | Standard shift | A conventional full working day |
| 8.51 – 12.00 | Long shift | Beyond a standard day; overtime rules may apply |
| Above 12.00 | Extended shift | Long enough that fatigue and rest rules commonly apply |
- Rounding is permitted under 29 CFR 785.48(b) only where it does not, over a period of time, result in a failure to compensate employees for all time actually worked. Rounding that consistently favours the employer does not meet that condition.
- This calculator handles a single shift. Overtime under the FLSA is calculated on hours worked in a workweek, not on a single day.
What this calculator measures
It measures elapsed time between two clock readings, minus any unpaid break, and expresses it two ways. Hours and minutes is how people describe a shift; decimal hours is how payroll multiplies it by a rate. Eight hours and fifteen minutes is 8.25 decimal hours, not 8.15 — a confusion that costs real money and is the single most common timesheet error.
An end time earlier than or equal to the start time is treated as a shift that crosses midnight, so 22:00 to 06:00 returns eight hours rather than an error. This is a deliberate reading: a night shift is a normal case, not malformed input.
Time-clock rounding is a US Fair Labor Standards Act concept. 29 CFR 785.48(b) permits an employer to record start and stop times to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth or quarter of an hour, but only where the practice, over time, does not fail to compensate employees for all time actually worked. The rounding here is applied to the clock times, as the regulation describes, and only then is the break subtracted.
How to use the hours calculator
- Enter the start time in 24-hour form, for example 09:00 or 22:30.
- Enter the end time the same way. If it is earlier than the start, the shift is treated as running past midnight.
- Enter the unpaid break in minutes. Paid breaks should not be entered here — they are working time.
- Choose a rounding increment if your employer uses a time clock that rounds; leave it on exact times otherwise.
- Optionally enter an hourly rate to see gross pay for the shift, before tax and other deductions.
The formula behind the hours calculator
Both clock times are converted to minutes since midnight. If the end is at or before the start, 24 hours are added to it. The unpaid break is then subtracted from the span, and the result is divided by 60 to give decimal hours.
When rounding is selected, each clock time is snapped to the nearest multiple of the increment before the subtraction. At the quarter-hour setting this reproduces the familiar seven-minute behaviour: a punch 1 to 7 minutes past the quarter rounds down, 8 to 14 minutes rounds up.
Common mistakes
- Reading 8.15 decimal hours as eight hours and fifteen minutes. It is eight hours and nine minutes; fifteen minutes is 0.25 of an hour.
- Deducting paid rest breaks. Only unpaid breaks reduce working time.
- Entering an overnight shift as a negative span instead of letting the end time roll past midnight.
- Applying rounding to the duration rather than to the clock times, which produces a different answer at the boundaries.
- Assuming rounding is always allowed. It is a US federal enforcement position with conditions attached, and several states and other countries do not permit it.
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How do I convert minutes to decimal hours?
Divide the minutes by 60. Fifteen minutes is 15/60 = 0.25 hours, twenty minutes is 0.333 hours, and forty-five minutes is 0.75 hours. Payroll systems multiply the decimal figure by the hourly rate, which is why eight hours and fifteen minutes must be entered as 8.25 and never as 8.15.
How does this handle a shift that crosses midnight?
If the end time is at or before the start time, 24 hours are added to it. A shift from 22:00 to 06:00 therefore returns eight hours. This is treated as the normal case for night work rather than as an input error.
What is the seven-minute rule?
It is the practical consequence of rounding punches to the nearest quarter hour under 29 CFR 785.48(b). Time from 1 to 7 minutes past a quarter-hour mark rounds down and time from 8 to 14 minutes rounds up. The regulation permits the practice only where it does not, over a period of time, fail to compensate employees for all the time they have actually worked.
Should I deduct my lunch break?
Deduct it only if it is unpaid. Under US rules, bona fide meal periods are generally not working time while short rest breaks generally are. Rules differ by jurisdiction and contract, so check yours before relying on the deduction.
Does this calculate overtime pay?
No. It returns the length of one shift and, optionally, gross pay at a flat hourly rate. FLSA overtime is calculated on hours worked in a workweek rather than in a day, and premium rates vary by jurisdiction and contract, so no premium is applied here.
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- US Department of Labor. 29 CFR 785.48 — Use of time clocks. Recording starting and stopping time to the nearest 5 minutes, or to the nearest one-tenth or quarter of an hour, is accepted provided it does not, over a period of time, result in failure to compensate employees properly for all the time they have actually worked.
- US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division. Fact Sheet #22: Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). dol.gov.
- US Department of Labor. 29 CFR Part 785 — Hours Worked. ecfr.gov.
- International Organization for Standardization. ISO 8601-1:2019, Date and time — Representations for information interchange.