Working Hours Calculator
Calculate Your Working Hours
Need to work out how many hours you have actually worked? Our Working Hours Calculator makes it easy to calculate your working time from your start and finish times, while automatically deducting your unpaid break.
Simply enter when you started, when you finished and the length of your unpaid break. The calculator will show your total elapsed time, break time and actual working hours in both hours and minutes and total minutes.
It also handles shifts that run overnight, making it useful for employees, employers, freelancers and anyone who needs to keep track of working time.
420 minutes worked
Calculation Details
- Start time
- 09:00
- End time
- 17:00
- Total elapsed time
- 8 hours 0 minutes
- Unpaid break
- 60 minutes
- Working time
- 7 hours 0 minutes
- Total minutes worked
- 420
How to Calculate Your Working Hours
Working out your actual hours worked can be more complicated than simply subtracting your start time from your finish time, particularly when you need to account for an unpaid lunch or other breaks.
Our Working Hours Calculator takes care of this calculation for you. Enter your start time, end time and unpaid break, and the calculator will work out how much time you actually worked.
How to use the calculator
- Enter your start time – Enter the time you started work.
- Enter your end time – Enter the time you finished work.
- Enter your unpaid break – Enter the total length of your unpaid break in minutes. For example, enter 60 for a one-hour lunch break.
- Select Calculate Working Hours – The calculator will calculate your working time.
- View your results – You will see the total elapsed time, unpaid break and actual working time.
How are working hours calculated?
The calculator first works out the total elapsed time between your start and finish times.
Your unpaid break is then deducted from this total.
Working time = Total elapsed time − Unpaid break
For example, if you work from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, your total elapsed time is 8 hours. If you take a 60-minute unpaid lunch break, your actual working time is 7 hours.
What if I work overnight?
The calculator can also handle working periods that cross midnight.
If your finish time is earlier than your start time, the calculator assumes that your shift continues into the following day.
For example, a shift from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM is treated as 8 hours of elapsed time. If you take a 30-minute unpaid break, your actual working time is 7 hours 30 minutes.
Why does the calculator show total elapsed time?
Showing the elapsed time separately from the working time makes the calculation easier to check.
For example:
Total elapsed time: 8 hours
Unpaid break: 60 minutes
Working time: 7 hours
This means you can see exactly how the final figure has been calculated.
What can you use a Working Hours Calculator for?
A working hours calculator can be useful for:
- Calculating daily working hours
- Checking employee or staff hours
- Working out shift lengths
- Deducting unpaid lunch breaks
- Calculating freelance or contractor working time
- Checking timesheets
- Calculating overnight shifts
- Tracking time spent working on projects
- Checking your hours before submitting a timesheet
Working Hours Calculator vs Time Duration Calculator
The two calculators are similar, but they are designed for different purposes.
A Time Duration Calculator tells you the total elapsed time between two times. It does not deduct breaks.
A Working Hours Calculator takes the elapsed time and deducts an unpaid break to give you the actual working time.
For example, if you work from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM:
- Time duration = 8 hours
- Working hours with a 1-hour unpaid break = 7 hours
Important to remember
This calculator assumes that the break you enter is unpaid time that should be deducted from your working hours.
It does not calculate overtime, pay, holiday entitlement or statutory working-time requirements. If you need to calculate wages based on your hours, use an appropriate pay or hourly-rate calculator.
For multiple working periods, different break types or more complex timesheets, you may need a more detailed working-time calculation.
