Work Hours Calculator
Find the hours in a shift, take off a break, and add an hourly rate to see gross pay.
Enter a start time and an end time to see the hours worked.
How to use the work hours calculator
Enter the time your shift started and the time it ended. If you took an unpaid break, type its length in minutes and the tool takes it off. The hours worked appear right away, as hours and minutes and as decimal hours.
The hourly rate field is optional. Fill it in and the tool also shows gross pay for the shift. Leave it blank and you simply get the hours. To total a whole week of shifts at once, the time card calculator lays out seven days.
Turning hours into gross pay
Pay is the decimal hours times your hourly rate. An 8-hour shift at $20 an hour is $160. A 7h 30m shift is 7.5 hours, so the same rate gives $150. The tool does this in decimal hours, which is why a half hour counts as 0.5 and a quarter hour as 0.25.
The figure is gross pay, before tax, insurance, and any other deductions. Your take-home will be lower. For a yearly view of a salary or wage, the salary calculator converts between hourly, weekly, and annual figures.
Overnight shifts and breaks
A shift that runs past midnight is common in care work, security, and hospitality. When the end time is earlier than the start time, the tool reads it as an overnight shift and counts the hours through midnight, so 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM is 8 hours.
Breaks come off the total before pay is worked out, which matches how most unpaid meal breaks work. If you only need the gap between two times without a rate, the hours calculator handles that and lets you stack several entries.
Who uses a work hours calculator
Hourly staff check a single shift against their pay slip. Freelancers price a block of work before they invoice. Small business owners estimate the cost of a shift before they schedule it.
It is a per-shift tool, which keeps it quick for the most common question: how long did I work, and what is that worth? For adding and subtracting raw lengths of time, the time calculator is the better fit.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I calculate pay for a shift?
- Enter the start and end times and any break, then add your hourly rate. The tool multiplies the decimal hours by the rate. An 8-hour shift at $20 an hour is $160 in gross pay.
- Is the pay figure before or after tax?
- It is gross pay, before tax, insurance, and other deductions. Your take-home pay will be lower, since those are taken out separately based on your situation.
- Does it handle a shift that crosses midnight?
- Yes. When the end time is earlier than the start time, the tool reads it as an overnight shift and counts through midnight. So 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM is 8 hours.
- Do I have to enter an hourly rate?
- No. The rate is optional. Without it, the tool shows only the hours worked. Add it and you also get gross pay for the shift.
- How is the break handled?
- The break, in minutes, comes off the time between start and end before the hours and pay are worked out. A break longer than the shift is flagged so you can fix it.