How to Calculate Hours Worked, Overnight Shifts and Pay

Adding up a timesheet should be quick, but breaks, shifts that cross midnight and minutes that have to become decimals catch plenty of people out. The method is short.

Hours between two times

Subtract the start time from the finish time, then take off any unpaid break. Working 9:00 to 17:30 with a 30 minute break is 8 hours 30 minutes minus 30 minutes, which is 8 hours. If the finish time is earlier than the start, the shift ran past midnight: 22:00 to 06:00 is 8 hours, because 2 hours to midnight plus 6 more.

Decimal hours

Payroll often wants hours as a decimal, because it is easy to multiply by a rate. Divide the minutes by 60: 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75, and 7 hours 30 minutes is 7.5. Some employers round to the nearest quarter hour, so check your own rules.

A weekly time card

The Hours Calculator takes a start, a finish and a break for each day, gives the hours for each, and adds the week. It also adds and subtracts lengths of time such as 1:30 and 2h 45m, and tells you what time it will be after a given duration.

From hourly pay to a salary

A full-time year is often counted as 52 weeks of 40 hours, which is 2,080 hours. Multiply your hourly rate by 2,080 for a yearly figure, or divide a salary by 2,080 for the hourly rate. At 25 an hour that is 52,000 a year. If you take unpaid weeks off, use fewer weeks. The Salary Calculator lets you set your own hours, days and paid weeks and shows pay per hour, day, week, month and year.

Things to check

• The figures are before tax and deductions.
• Overtime rules differ by country, job and contract, and aren't included.
• Use the Percentage Calculator for raises and bonuses, such as finding what 5 percent more pay comes to.