Payroll Hours Calculator
Enter your start time, end time, breaks, and hourly rate to instantly calculate paid hours, decimal hours, and estimated gross pay. Designed for U.S. employees, freelancers, and small businesses.
Unpaid lunch or break
USD per hour
Result
Enter your times and tap Calculate to see paid hours, decimal hours, and estimated gross pay.
Estimate only. Not payroll, tax, or HR advice.
Formula
Paid hours = (End time − Start time) − Break minutes
Decimal hours = Paid minutes ÷ 60
Gross pay = Regular hours × rate + Overtime hours × rate × 1.5
Example calculation
Shift: 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM with a 30-minute unpaid lunch at $20/hour.
Total time = 8h 30m. Paid time = 8h 00m = 8.00 decimal hours. Gross pay ≈ $160.00.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting to deduct unpaid lunch breaks.
- Mixing 12-hour AM/PM times, use 24-hour HH:MM in the inputs.
- Treating 8:30 as 8.30 decimal hours (it is actually 8.50).
- Applying overtime daily when your state uses weekly overtime.
About this calculator
What the Payroll Hours calculator does
This tool turns a single shift into the four numbers any payroll system needs: total time worked, paid time after breaks, decimal hours, and an estimated gross pay when you supply an hourly rate. It works for normal day shifts, late-evening shifts, and overnight shifts that cross midnight, and it can fold an extra layer of weekly overtime on top when you toggle the option.
When to use it
Use it when a paycheck looks off and you want a second opinion before contacting payroll. It is also useful when you are converting a paper time card into the format your payroll app expects, when a manager asks you to estimate the cost of an extra hour, or when you are checking the math on a friend or family member's stub. New hires often run a few sample shifts through it before their first paycheck so they know what number to expect.
How the calculation works
The calculator subtracts the start time from the end time to get total minutes. If the end time is earlier than the start, it adds 24 hours so an overnight shift produces a positive number. It then removes the unpaid break minutes you enter, divides the remainder by 60 to get decimal hours, and multiplies by your rate to estimate pay. With the overtime toggle on, anything past a 40 hour weekly threshold is paid at 1.5 times the base rate.
How to read the result
Total time is the raw shift length, useful for verifying the schedule. Paid time is what your employer should be running through payroll. Decimal hours is the value most payroll systems actually store and the field you usually type into a portal. Estimated pay is a sanity check on gross earnings, not a substitute for an official pay stub.
Practical example
A shift that starts at 9:00 AM and ends at 5:30 PM with a 30 minute unpaid lunch is 8 hours of paid time, or 8.00 decimal hours. At a $20 hourly rate, that comes out to roughly $160 of gross pay before taxes. Add a Saturday shift of the same length and the week climbs to 48 paid hours, which means 8 hours sit in overtime at $30, adding another $240 to that paycheck.
Common limitation or caution
The calculator does not know your state's overtime rules, your employer's rounding policy, or which breaks count as paid versus unpaid in your handbook. California, for example, uses daily overtime. Some union contracts treat short rest breaks as paid time. Always confirm the result with your employer or payroll provider before using it for an official entry or a paycheck dispute.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Before you use the result
Our calculators give quick payroll-time and pay estimates. Your final paycheck depends on factors this tool does not see, including employer policy, state and local rules, time clock rounding, paid versus unpaid breaks, premium pay, deductions, and how your payroll provider applies them.
- Confirm pay rules with your employer, payroll provider, or HR team.
- Overtime, breaks, and rounding rules can change by state.
For how each calculation is built, see our methodology and disclaimer.