Work Hours Calculator

Working out hours between two times

Subtract the start from the end, deduct any unpaid break, and convert the leftover minutes to decimal by dividing by 60. From 8:45am to 5:15pm is 8 hours 30 minutes, less a 30-minute lunch, which is 8.00 hours exactly. When the end time is earlier than the start, the shift crossed midnight: add 24 hours before subtracting.

How many work hours are in a year

A standard full-time year is 2,080 hours, being 40 hours across 52 weeks. That figure is the denominator behind most salary conversions and most PTO accrual rates, which is why it appears everywhere. It does not subtract holidays or leave, because those are usually paid; a year with ten paid holidays still bills 2,080 hours, it simply contains fewer worked ones.

A month averages 173.33 hours (2,080 ÷ 12), which is the figure to use when converting a monthly salary rather than counting the actual days in a particular month.

When the total needs to survive scrutiny

Hours calculated after the fact are a reconstruction, not a record. Federal law requires employers to keep the records used to calculate pay, and where those records are missing or unreliable the employee's reasonable recollection generally prevails. That is the argument for recording punches as they happen rather than totalling a week from memory on Friday afternoon.

For a full week rather than a single shift, the time card calculator totals seven days with breaks deducted and splits the overtime.