How our calculators work

Built for everyday work schedules

Work Hours Now is maintained by the Work Hours Now team. We help people total shifts, subtract unpaid breaks, compare hourly and annual pay, and keep a printable record. The calculators are free to use and do not require an account.

Questions, suggestions, and corrections reach the people maintaining this site at venturesjgk@gmail.com. We describe the methods below to make the estimates easier to understand; the site does not certify an employer’s payroll or determine anyone’s legal entitlement to pay.

Shift hours and unpaid breaks

Paid minutes = elapsed minutes between clock in and clock out − unpaid break minutes. For example, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM is 510 minutes. Subtract a 30-minute unpaid break to get 480 minutes, or 8 hours.

If clock out is earlier than clock in, it is treated as the following day. Equal start and end times count as zero hours, not a 24-hour shift. A shift cannot span more than one midnight. Calculations use clock times rather than calendar dates, so they do not adjust for daylight saving changes or time zones.

Each shift belongs to the selected starting day, including its overnight hours. Split shifts are added separately. Overlapping entries are also added; the calculator does not detect or remove duplicated time. Breaks cannot make paid time negative.

Use Add to selected days or Update shift to apply edits. Totals use applied shifts. Unapplied edits are marked and prevent CSV export or printing until resolved.

Job wages and weekly overtime

Each job saves one hourly wage, overtime multiplier, and weekly overtime threshold. Shifts assigned to the same job share those settings. Applying a pay-setting change updates that job’s applied shifts.

Regular hours = the smaller of that job’s weekly hours and its threshold. Overtime hours = hours above the threshold. Regular pay = regular hours × hourly wage. Overtime pay = overtime hours × hourly wage × overtime multiplier. Gross pay is regular pay plus overtime pay.

The time card uses separate Monday–Sunday groups for Week 1 and Week 2. Hours are counted separately for each job and week; a biweekly total does not combine both weeks before applying overtime. An overnight shift stays in its selected starting day’s week.

These are calculation settings, not legal conclusions. The tool does not calculate daily overtime, double-time tiers, blended regular rates, or combined hours across related or joint employers. Do not split one employer’s hours into separate jobs to determine overtime owed. If your employer’s workweek starts on another day, this layout may not match its payroll calculation.

For U.S. rules, consult the Department of Labor’s overtime overview and joint-employment guidance, along with the rules applicable to your work. Work Hours Now is not affiliated with the Department of Labor.

Salary and hourly conversions

Hourly to annual pay = hourly wage × hours per week × weeks per year. Annual to hourly pay reverses that formula. Monthly pay is annual pay divided by 12; twice-monthly pay is annual pay divided by 24. Weekly pay uses the entered weeks per year, biweekly pay is twice that weekly amount, and the daily equivalent assumes five workdays per week.

These converters use base pay only. They do not add overtime, bonuses, commissions, benefits, or paid leave separately. Enter the paid hours and weeks that fit the comparison you want to make. Dollar amounts are displayed in U.S. dollars; no currency conversion is performed.

Precision, rounding, and deductions

The time card accepts clock times to the minute and subtracts the entered unpaid break. It does not round clock times to a 5-, 6-, or 15-minute payroll increment. Decimal hours are minutes divided by 60, so 7 hours 30 minutes is 7.50 hours.

Pay is calculated from the underlying hours rather than the rounded hours shown on screen. Money is displayed to two decimal places. Individually displayed line amounts can differ by a cent from a total calculated before display rounding. Decimal-hours-to-time conversions round to the nearest whole minute.

The optional deduction subtracts only the percentage you enter from gross pay. The deduction is rounded to cents, then the remaining amount is rounded to cents. It does not look up tax rates, apply tax brackets, or calculate a complete take-home paycheck. On salary converters, it applies to the pay period you select.

Local saving and checking your results

Time-card entries and saved job settings stay in your browser’s local storage on that device. They do not sync across devices and may be lost if browser data is cleared. Export a CSV or print a copy when you need a lasting record. See our privacy page for analytics and hosting details.

We check calculation behavior with automated tests covering breaks, overnight and split shifts, weekly overtime, multiple jobs, and deductions. Browser checks cover editing, saved entries, exports, keyboard access, and mobile layouts. Testing reduces mistakes, but you should still compare important results with your records and the rules that apply to you.

For a worked example, read how to calculate pay across two jobs. The printable timesheet is a blank record template and does not calculate totals.

Report a problem or suggest an improvement

Email venturesjgk@gmail.com with the page URL, your browser/device, sample inputs, and the result you expected. Use made-up examples instead of sending pay stubs, employee names, or other private records.