Work Hours Calculator
Calculate work hours for a time sheet using the calculator below.
Total Work Hours:
Time Card Report:
| Day | Start Time | End Time | Break | Total Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | --:-- | --:-- | -- | 0 |
| Tuesday | --:-- | --:-- | -- | 0 |
| Wednesday | --:-- | --:-- | -- | 0 |
| Thursday | --:-- | --:-- | -- | 0 |
| Friday | --:-- | --:-- | -- | 0 |
| Saturday | --:-- | --:-- | -- | 0 |
| Sunday | --:-- | --:-- | -- | 0 |
| Total Hours: | 0 | |||
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Joseph Rich holds a Master's degree in finance and a Bachelor's degree in economics. He specializes in economics and investing analysis.
Laura started her career in Finance a decade ago and provides strategic financial management consulting. She has an MBA in Finance and a Bachelor's in Economics.
How to Calculate Hours Worked
If you need to track work time using a time card, time sheet, or time clock, then you should follow the steps below. You can calculate the total hours worked in a week by following five simple steps.
Step One: Convert Times to 24-hour Time
The first step is to convert the starting and ending times to 24-hour time, or military time. This allows you to easily subtract the start time from the end time.
For example, to convert your work hours of 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, 8:00 am stays the same, while you add 12:00 to 4:00 pm to get 16:00. To convert the starting and ending times to 24-hour time, morning hours will always stay the same, and you will add 12 if the time is in the afternoon (1:00 pm to 11:59 pm).
Step Two: Convert 24-hour Times to Decimal
Next, you need to convert the start and end times to a decimal. So, 8:00 becomes 8.0, and 16:00 becomes 16.0.
That’s a straightforward process for whole hours, but what if you start at 8:15 am? In this case, you would take the number of minutes and divide by 60 to convert it to decimal form.
For example, 8:15 is the same as 8 and 15/60. You can reduce the fraction to ¼, which is converted to 0.25 in decimal form.
Step Three: Calculate Time for Each Day
The third step is to subtract the start time from the end time. If you work from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm (16:30), you would subtract 8 from 16.5, which equals 8.5 hours.
This is the elapsed time between the start and end times, but does not account for any unpaid breaks during the day. We’ll account for breaks in the next step, if needed.
Step Four: Subtract Breaks
After you calculate the number of hours you were at work, now you must subtract any unpaid breaks you took during the day.
If you work 10 hours and take an hour break for lunch every day, then you would note “10” hours for each day and enter “1:00” in the “Break Time” column in the calculator above. If you took an hour and a half lunch break on a particular day, you would convert that time to a decimal (1.5), or in the calculator, you would enter “1:30”.
Step Five: Add Daily Hours Together
The final step to calculating work hours for the entire week is to add together the number of hours worked each day throughout the week.
You can also use our hours calculator to calculate the hour for a single day. It also allows the option to enter in multiple breaks.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many hours do I work per year?
If a full-time employee works 8 hours per day, 5 days per week for the entire year, then they work a total of 2,080 hours.
Why do I need to convert my hours worked to a decimal?
Start and end times need to be converted to a decimal so that an employer can pay you accurately. For example, if you worked from 8:00 am to 4:15 pm (16:15), this would equate to 8.25 hours.
You want your employer to pay you for 8.25 hours, not 8.15 hours. This is why it’s important to convert your work time to a decimal.
Do salaried employees need to track their total hours worked?
If you are a salaried employee, not exempt, and eligible for overtime pay, then you do need to track your hours worked so that you are paid accurately. If you are a salaried employee and exempt, then most employers do not require that you track your hours worked.