Calculating a timesheet with a lunch break is a two-step process: find gross hours between clock-in and clock-out, then subtract any unpaid break time. The result is the net compensable hours you multiply by your pay rate.
To calculate a timesheet with lunch breaks, subtract your clock-out time from your clock-in time to get gross hours, then subtract the duration of any unpaid meal break. A shift from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM with a 30-minute unpaid lunch equals 7.5 net hours. The calculator below does that subtraction for a full workweek, and lets you copy a link to it or export it as a CSV.
Gross hours minus lunch minutes, per weekday.
Net hours = (clock-out minus clock-in) minus unpaid break time. Convert everything to 24-hour format first, then work in minutes or decimals; mixing clock notation with decimal notation mid-calculation is where most manual timesheets go wrong.
| In | Out | Lunch break | Gross hours | Net hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00 | 17:00 | 30 min | 9.00 | 8.50 |
| 9:00 | 17:00 | 30 min | 8.00 | 7.50 |
| 7:30 | 16:00 | 45 min | 8.50 | 7.75 |
| 8:00 | 18:00 | 60 min | 10.00 | 9.00 |
| 6:00 | 14:30 | 30 min | 8.50 | 8.00 |
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), short rest breaks of 5 to 20 minutes must be paid because they primarily benefit the employer. A genuine meal break of 30 minutes or longer can be unpaid, but only if the employee is completely relieved of all duties for the entire break. If a worker is asked to answer phones or monitor something during lunch, that break must be paid.
Rather than adjusting your clock-out time to account for a break, record the true clock-in and clock-out times and enter break time as a separate deduction. This keeps your records transparent and accurate if a time dispute arises. Most digital time cards and payroll tools have a dedicated break field for exactly this reason.
Add all unpaid break minutes together before subtracting. If a shift has a 15-minute morning break (paid) and a 30-minute lunch (unpaid), only subtract the 30-minute lunch. Two unpaid breaks of 15 minutes each would be 30 minutes total to deduct. Always confirm which breaks your employer designates as paid before making deductions.
The calculator sums each weekday's net hours into the weekly total shown above, then splits that total at the 40-hour federal threshold into regular and overtime hours. Change any single day's clock times or lunch minutes and the whole week recalculates immediately. For a full seven-day card, including weekend shifts, use the time card calculator instead; this tool is scoped to the Monday-through-Friday lunch-break question specifically.
Federal law (FLSA) sets baseline rules, but many states impose additional break requirements. Examples:
State law can change. Check your state labor agency's website or consult a qualified employment professional for current requirements. This article provides general educational information only and is not legal advice.
If an employee skips a scheduled unpaid lunch and works straight through the shift, those break minutes become compensable time. An employee who works 9:00 to 17:00 without taking a 30-minute lunch worked 8 full hours, not 7.5. Employers should track this carefully, because failing to pay for worked time is a wage violation under the FLSA. Employees should note on their timesheet if they worked through a scheduled break so the time record reflects reality. If you skip lunch and your pay stub shows a break deduction anyway, raise the discrepancy with your payroll department with your actual time records as documentation.
Some payroll systems automatically deduct a fixed break (often 30 minutes) from every shift over a certain length, regardless of whether the employee actually took the break. This is called an automatic deduction policy. Under the FLSA, automatic deductions are permissible only if the employer monitors that employees actually take the break and removes the deduction whenever a break is missed or interrupted. If your employer uses automatic deductions and you regularly work through lunch without the deduction being reversed, that may result in underpayment. Keep your own records of actual break times taken each day. Use the time card calculator to enter your actual hours including the correct break deduction, then compare the result to your pay stub. See also how to calculate total hours worked to understand the full timesheet methodology.
The time card calculator covers every day of the week, not just Monday through Friday.
Yes. The Copy link button encodes this week's clock times and lunch breaks into the page URL itself, so opening that link reproduces the same week without retyping anything.
Yes, the Export CSV button downloads a file with one row per weekday: clock-in, clock-out, lunch minutes, gross hours and net hours, ready to open in a spreadsheet.
Lunch-break deductions are most commonly a weekday-shift question. If your schedule includes weekend shifts with breaks, the time card calculator handles all seven days.
The weekly net total is shown alongside a regular/overtime split at the 40-hour federal threshold, but this tool doesn't apply any state daily-overtime rules on top of that; check your own state if long single days apply.
No, it only subtracts whatever lunch minutes you enter per day. Whether a second break is legally required depends on your state and shift length; see the state table further down this page and enter both breaks' combined minutes if two unpaid breaks apply.
Jessica Martinez spent six years as a credit analyst before deciding the spreadsheets had better stories than the meetings. She writes about pay, payroll math, and the workplace fine print everyone scrolls past, from overtime rules to the timesheet that rounds against you.