Track your weekly hours, calculate overtime, and see your pay total. Handles overnight shifts, breaks, daily OT, and double time. Works perfectly on mobile.
| Day | In | Out | Break | Hours | Type |
|---|
Choose your overtime rule. Federal law requires 1.5× after 40 hours/week. Some states (California) add daily overtime. Your employer may have more generous rules.
Tracking your hours correctly is the foundation of getting paid what you're owed. A single missed 15-minute increment costs you about $60/year at $15/hour — and across a career, sloppy timekeeping adds up to thousands of dollars. Whether you're an hourly employee punching a clock, a nurse on 12-hour shifts, or a freelancer billing by the hour, accurate time tracking is non-negotiable.
The formula is simple: Hours Worked = (Clock-Out Time − Clock-In Time) − Break Time. A 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM shift with a 30-minute lunch break is 8.5 − 0.5 = 8.0 hours. Where it gets tricky: overnight shifts that cross midnight, partial hours, and weeks with varying daily totals.
For time calculations, always convert to decimal hours or minutes to avoid errors. 8:45 AM = 8.75 hours from midnight. 5:15 PM = 17.25 hours from midnight. The difference: 17.25 − 8.75 = 8.5 hours. Subtract your 30-minute (0.5 hour) break: 8.0 hours worked. This calculator handles all the conversion math automatically, including overnight shifts where you clock out the next morning.
When you clock in at 10:00 PM and out at 6:00 AM, you've worked 8 hours — but the raw subtraction (6:00 − 22:00) gives a negative number. The correct approach: add 24 hours to the clock-out time when it's earlier than clock-in. So: (6:00 + 24:00) − 22:00 = 8.0 hours. This calculator detects overnight shifts automatically and flags them with a purple indicator.
| Rule | Overtime Threshold | Rate | Double Time | Who It Covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal (FLSA) | Over 40 hrs/week | 1.5× | Not required | Most US workers |
| California | Over 8 hrs/day OR 40 hrs/week | 1.5× | Over 12 hrs/day or 7th consecutive day | CA employees |
| Nevada | Over 8 hrs/day (if wage < 1.5× min) | 1.5× | Not required | NV employees |
| Colorado | Over 12 hrs/day OR 40 hrs/week | 1.5× | Not required | CO employees |
| Alaska | Over 8 hrs/day OR 40 hrs/week | 1.5× | Not required | AK employees |
| Employer policy | Varies | 1.5× or 2× | Some employers pay 2× | Per contract |
The most frequent errors on time cards include rounding down partial hours (always round to your employer's increment — usually 6 or 15 minutes), forgetting to account for pre-shift prep time (in many industries, time spent putting on required uniforms or safety equipment is compensable), not tracking split shifts, and failing to document on-call time that crosses into actual work. Keep your own records — don't rely solely on your employer's system.
Time tracking uses decimal hours for math purposes. Converting is simple: divide the minutes portion by 60. So 8 hours 45 minutes = 8 + (45÷60) = 8.75 hours. Here's a quick reference for the most common minute values. Knowing these by heart saves time when verifying your paycheck manually without a calculator.
| Minutes | Decimal | Minutes | Decimal | Minutes | Decimal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 min | 0.083 | 25 min | 0.417 | 45 min | 0.750 |
| 10 min | 0.167 | 30 min | 0.500 | 50 min | 0.833 |
| 15 min | 0.250 | 35 min | 0.583 | 55 min | 0.917 |
| 20 min | 0.333 | 40 min | 0.667 | 60 min | 1.000 |
Understanding what a typical workweek looks like in your industry helps you know when overtime is expected versus when it's exceptional. Industries with consistent overtime include nursing and healthcare (12-hour shifts often run long), hospitality (weekend events, catering), retail during holiday seasons, and construction under deadline pressure. Industries where 40-hour weeks are standard but overtime is rare include office administration, government work, and education-adjacent roles.
| Industry | Typical Shift | Common Pattern | OT Frequency | OT Rule |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail | 6–8 hrs | 5 days, varies | Holiday peaks | Federal 40hr/wk |
| Food Service | 6–10 hrs | Split shifts common | Moderate | Federal + tips |
| Nursing (hospital) | 12 hrs | 3 on / 4 off | High | CA daily if in CA |
| Construction | 10 hrs | 4×10 or 5×8 | Seasonal | Federal or state |
| Manufacturing | 8–12 hrs | Rotating shifts | Moderate–high | Federal + some states |
| Office / Admin | 8 hrs | Mon–Fri | Low | Federal 40hr/wk |
| Warehouse | 8–10 hrs | 4 or 5 days | Seasonal spikes | Federal 40hr/wk |
| Home Health | 8–12 hrs | Varies widely | Moderate | Domestic worker rules |
Keep your own time log separate from your employer's system. A simple note on your phone with clock-in and clock-out times costs nothing and can be worth thousands if there's ever a pay dispute. Note any days you worked through breaks, stayed late without recording, or were called back in after clocking out. Under federal law, if your employer knows you're working, they must pay you — even if you didn't officially clock in. The "suffered or permitted to work" standard means actual work time is compensable regardless of whether it was pre-approved.
If you're a freelancer or contractor billing by the hour, precision is even more important. Round to the nearest 6-minute (0.1 hour) or 15-minute (0.25 hour) increment — whichever your contract specifies. Never round down habitually; if you work 23 minutes, bill 0.4 hours at 6-minute rounding. Over a year of consistent under-billing by 10 minutes per session at $100/hr consulting rates, you could easily be giving away $4,000–$6,000 annually.
Your gross pay (before deductions) is calculated as: Regular Hours × Hourly Rate + Overtime Hours × (Hourly Rate × OT Multiplier). Federal law requires overtime at 1.5× for hours over 40 in a workweek. Many employers and some states require 2× double time for specific situations. Your net pay (take-home) is your gross minus federal income tax withholding, Social Security (6.2%), Medicare (1.45%), state income tax, and any voluntary deductions like health insurance or 401k.
Federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour as of 2026, but most states have set higher minimums. California leads at $16/hour statewide (higher in some cities). New York, Washington, Massachusetts, and Colorado all exceed $15/hour. Always use the higher of federal or state minimum wage — the federal rate is a floor, not a target. Tip credit rules also vary: some states require employers to pay the full minimum wage regardless of tips, while federal law allows a tip credit that reduces the base wage to as low as $2.13/hour if tips make up the difference.
At $18/hour, an extra hour of overtime pays $27 — not just $18. Working 45 hours instead of 40 adds 5 × $27 = $135 more than a straight 45 × $18 = $810 would. The weekly difference: $855 vs $810 = $45 extra. Over a full year of consistent 45-hour weeks, that's $2,340 in OT premium. At $25/hour, the same pattern generates $3,250/year in OT premium on top of base pay.
Employers are legally allowed to round employee time to the nearest 5 minutes, 1/10 of an hour (6 minutes), or quarter hour — but only if the rounding policy is neutral and doesn't consistently favor the employer. A rounding policy that always rounds down employee hours is wage theft. The Department of Labor's "7-minute rule" is commonly misunderstood: it means you round to the nearest quarter hour (e.g., anything from 7 minutes past the hour to 22 minutes past rounds to the 15-minute mark), not that you can simply discard the first 7 minutes of every shift. If your employer rounds against you consistently, you can file a wage claim with the DOL or your state labor board.
Modern workplaces increasingly use biometric clocking systems (fingerprint, facial recognition, hand geometry) that automatically record timestamps to the second. These systems reduce buddy-punching (having a coworker clock in for you) but also create a paper trail that benefits workers in wage disputes — the system's log is typically admissible evidence. If your employer uses manual time sheets, keep a personal backup. If they use digital swipe cards, request your full time log periodically — most employers must provide it upon request, and some states mandate they keep records for 2–3 years.
The FLSA defines compensable time broadly. All of the following count as hours worked: time spent at your workstation even if not actively productive (waiting for work to arrive), short rest periods of 20 minutes or less, time spent on required training during work hours, travel time between job sites during the workday, and on-call time if restrictions prevent you from using that time freely. What typically does not count: commute time to and from your regular workplace, bona fide meal breaks of 30+ minutes where you're completely relieved of duties, and voluntary off-site training outside normal work hours. When in doubt, document the time and let the labor board or a wage attorney determine compensability.