Time Card Calculator

How hours are calculated

For each day the calculator subtracts the start time from the end time and then subtracts the unpaid break. If the end time is the same as or earlier than the start time, the shift is taken to run past midnight and 24 hours are added — a 22:00 to 06:00 night shift is 8 hours. The daily figures are added for the period total.

day = (end − start, + 24 h if overnight) − break
decimal hours = minutes ÷ 60  ·  overtime = max(0, total − threshold)
pay = regular hours × rate + overtime hours × rate × multiplier

Results are shown both as hours and minutes (7:45) and as decimal hours (7.75), because payroll systems and timesheets usually want decimals while people think in clock time. Mixing them up is a classic error: 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75 hours, not 7.45.

Worked examples

Example 1: a standard week

Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:30 with a 30-minute lunch: each day is 8 h 30 min − 30 min = 8:00, so the week is 40:00, or 40.00 decimal hours.

Example 2: overtime

Five days of 08:00 to 17:30 with 30-minute breaks is 9 hours a day, 45 hours in total. With overtime after 40 hours and a $20 rate at 1.5×, regular pay is 40 × 20 = $800, overtime is 5 × 20 × 1.5 = $150, and gross pay is $950.

Example 3: an overnight shift

22:00 to 06:00 with a 45-minute break: the clock wraps past midnight, so the span is 8 hours and the time worked is 7:15, which is 7.25 decimal hours.

How to read the result

The headline is the total time worked in hours and minutes, followed by decimal hours and the number of days. A bar for each day lets you compare shift lengths at a glance, with overnight shifts labelled. The card holds up to seven days, one work week, because overtime is counted per week; for a two-week pay period, run each week separately and add the totals. The table separates regular and overtime hours when you set a threshold, and shows regular pay, overtime pay and gross pay when you enter a rate. Pay is rounded to the cent at the end, not per day, so it may differ by a cent from systems that round each shift.

Overtime rules

In the United States, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act generally requires overtime at no less than one and a half times the regular rate for non-exempt employees for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. That weekly rule is what this calculator applies when you enter 40. Some states add their own rules — California, for example, also requires overtime for work over 8 hours in a day and double time in some cases — and many employers and union agreements pay more generously. Other countries set limits differently. Enter the threshold and multiplier from your contract or local law, and treat the result as an estimate rather than legal advice.

Breaks and rounding

Only enter breaks that are unpaid. Short rest breaks are often paid and should stay in the total. Some employers round clock-in times to the nearest 5, 6 or 15 minutes; enter the rounded times if your employer does so and the actual times if you want to check what you really worked. A 6-minute increment is a tenth of an hour, which is why some timesheets use it. If a break is as long as the shift or longer, the calculator flags it instead of returning a negative time.

Common uses

Hourly employees use a time card calculator to check a paycheck before payday; freelancers and contractors total billable hours for invoices; managers and small-business owners total timesheets before running payroll; and students with part-time jobs keep track of hours against visa or scholarship limits. Because it accepts any number of rows, it also works for a fortnight or a month. For one-off intervals between two times, the time duration calculator is quicker, and to see a pay rise as a percentage, use the percentage change calculator.

Limits

Each row can cover at most 24 hours; for a shift longer than a day, split it across two rows. Overtime is computed on the total of the rows you enter, so enter one workweek at a time if your overtime resets weekly. Pay shown is gross, before income tax, social security, benefits or other deductions, and it does not model tips, shift differentials, bonuses or the "regular rate" adjustments that some bonuses require. Nothing is stored when you leave the page.