A 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM shift with a 30-minute unpaid break comes to exactly 8 hours, which is 8.00 decimal hours on a timesheet.
Estimates only.
Most elapsed-time confusion isn't the subtraction, it's the break. Whether a break comes out of your total depends on whether it was paid, and the Fair Labor Standards Act draws that line by length and by duty, not by what your shift schedule calls it.
Enter only unpaid time in the break field. If you put a paid 10-minute break in there by mistake, the net hours this tool reports will run short of what you are actually owed, since that time was worked and payable. A 30-minute unpaid lunch is the deduction this tool is built for; a 10-minute paid break should not be subtracted at all.
Start at 9:00 AM, finish at 5:30 PM, with a 30-minute unpaid lunch. Converting to minutes since midnight: 540 for the start, 1,050 for the end, a gross span of 510 minutes. Take out the 30-minute lunch and 480 minutes remain, which is exactly 8.00 hours. Skip the lunch deduction and the same shift reads 8.5 hours instead, the difference the break field exists to catch.
| Start | End | Break | Net hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 AM | 5:00 PM | 30 m | 7.50 |
| 9:00 AM | 5:30 PM | 30 m | 8.00 |
| 7:00 AM | 3:30 PM | 0 m | 8.50 |
| 10:00 PM | 6:30 AM | 30 m | 8.00 |
A clock-out earlier than the clock-in is the tell that a shift crossed into the next day. This tool adds a full 24 hours to the end time whenever that happens, so 10:00 PM to 6:30 AM resolves to 510 minutes, or 8.5 hours, before any break comes out, rather than returning a negative number.
Some payroll systems dock a fixed 30 or 60 minutes from every shift over a set length, whether or not the employee actually stepped away. That practice is permitted under the FLSA only if the employer actively monitors it and restores the time on any day the break was skipped or interrupted. If you regularly work through a lunch that still gets deducted on your pay stub, this tool is a fast way to check your real hours against what payroll shows.
Round-number examples flatter every calculator, so here is a lopsided one. Clock in at 6:45 AM, out at 4:10 PM, with a 45-minute unpaid lunch. In minutes since midnight that is 405 and 970, a gross span of 565 minutes; removing the 45-minute lunch leaves 520. The tool reports it both ways at once: 8h 40m, and 8.67 decimal hours. Both describe the same 520 minutes, and having the pair on screen together is the point, because the h:mm figure is what you remember about the day while the decimal is what payroll multiplies. When those two get confused, 8.40 standing in for 8h 40m, the shift silently loses 16 minutes.
Federal law is quieter on breaks than most people expect: the FLSA sets pay rules for breaks that happen but does not require an employer to provide a meal period at all. States fill that gap, and unevenly. California is the strictest of the large states: a 30-minute meal period must begin before the end of the fifth hour of work, with a second one due before the end of the tenth hour on longer days, and a missed or interrupted meal owes the employee an extra hour of premium pay. If your break field on this page is routinely empty on 9-hour California days, that is not just a timesheet quirk; it is a number your employer owes money on. Check your own state's rules before assuming the federal silence is the whole story.
A lunch only counts as unpaid, deductible time when you are genuinely relieved of work. Eating at your desk while answering the phone is worked time under the FLSA no matter what the schedule calls it, and it belongs in your total, not in the break field. The practical test is simple: if you could not leave the work behind for the full stretch, the stretch was work.
Sources: DOL Fact Sheet 22, Hours Worked under the FLSA, California DIR, Meal Periods FAQ.
Last updated July 18, 2026.
Only if the deduction is reversed on the days you actually work through it. Automatic break deductions are allowed under the FLSA only when the employer has a real process for crediting back time on days the break was interrupted or skipped.
No. Short breaks of roughly 20 minutes or less are treated as paid working time under the FLSA and should not be entered in this tool's break field. A genuine meal period of 30 minutes or more, where you are fully off duty, is the kind of break meant to be deducted.
Your net hours will come out lower than what you are actually owed. Only enter break time that your employer does not pay you for; a paid rest break should stay counted as worked time.
No. It reports the exact decimal figure down to two places. Any rounding your employer applies to punches happens on their end, before or after this calculation, not inside this tool.
This tool measures one span between a start and end time. The hours calculator adds up a full week of separate daily totals and splits them into regular and overtime hours.