Night Shift Hours Calculator

Calculate paid hours for a shift that starts in the evening and ends after midnight. The tool defaults to overnight assumptions, so the math handles the day-rollover automatically without you needing to flip a toggle.

Use it for nurses, security staff, hospitality, factory, hospital, transportation, and any role that crosses midnight on a regular basis. It is also useful when you are reviewing a stub for a stretch of nights and want to confirm that the day-rollover did not double-count or skip an hour.

When the end time is earlier than the start time, the calculator adds 24 hours and then subtracts the break. The result is paid hours, total hours, and decimal hours. The same logic handles standard 8, 10, and 12 hour overnight shifts without any special setup.

The result confirms the overnight calculation, so a 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM shift comes out to 8 hours, not negative 16. Paid time is what payroll should run, total time is the raw schedule, and decimal hours is the value to type into a payroll portal.

An 11:00 PM to 7:30 AM shift with a 30 minute meal break is 8 hours paid, or 8.00 decimal hours. A 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM 12 hour shift with a 60 minute break is 11 hours paid. A 10:30 PM to 4:30 AM short night with a 15 minute break is 5 hours 45 minutes paid, or 5.75 decimal hours.

Night shift differentials, holiday premiums, and overtime past a daily threshold can change pay materially. Confirm your specific policy before using this for a paycheck dispute. Some healthcare employers use a 7-on, 7-off pattern that complicates weekly overtime, and that pattern is not modeled here. Some employers add a shift differential, often a flat dollar amount or a small percentage, on top of the base rate for overnight hours; this calculator does not assume any differential, so add it manually if your employer pays one.