Home / Blog / Calculate Pay From Hours Worked

How to Calculate Pay From Hours Worked

By Frame Sixty Labs · Last updated: August 7, 2026

What are the steps, start to finish?

Five, in this order. The order matters — converting or rounding too early is where paychecks quietly go wrong.

1. Total each shift in H:MM. Clock-out minus clock-in. A 7:00 AM to 3:30 PM shift is 8:30. An overnight 10:00 PM to 6:30 AM shift is also 8:30 — count up to midnight, then onward.
2. Subtract unpaid breaks. That 8:30 shift with a 30-minute unpaid lunch is 8:00 of paid time.
3. Add the days into one weekly total. Carry 60 minutes into 1 hour, not 100.
4. Convert the total to decimal hours. Minutes ÷ 60, once, on the total.
5. Split regular from overtime, then multiply by the rate. Straight hours at the base rate, overtime hours at the premium rate.

Steps 1 through 3 are ordinary time arithmetic — our guide to calculating hours between two times covers the borrowing and the midnight crossing in detail. Steps 4 and 5 are where the money appears.

Why can't I multiply the clock time by my rate?

Because 6:20 and 6.20 are different amounts of time, and a calculator has no way to tell them apart.

Twenty minutes is 20 ÷ 60 = 0.3333 of an hour, so a 6-hour 20-minute shift is 6.3333 decimal hours. At $16 an hour:

• Correct: 6.3333 × $16 = $101.33
• Typed as 6.20: 6.20 × $16 = $99.20

That's $2.13 gone from one shift. Five shifts a week, fifty weeks a year, and the same habit costs a few hundred dollars for work that was genuinely done. The fix is a single division, and it belongs on the total, not on each day.

What does each block of minutes actually pay?

Partial hours are where most of the doubt lives. Here is every five-minute block, converted and priced at $20 an hour:

Only the quarter hours — 15, 30 and 45 minutes — land on clean decimals. Everything else repeats forever, which is exactly why you should divide once at the end instead of rounding every day. For the full conversion method see how to convert minutes to decimal hours.

Worked example: a full week with overtime

An hourly employee earning $18.50 an hour, with a 30-minute unpaid lunch every day:

Check the total before you price it. In minutes: 480 + 525 + 450 + 570 + 495 = 2520, and 2520 ÷ 60 = 42. The weekly total is exactly 42:00, or 42.0 decimal hours.

Now the pay. Two of those hours are past the 40-hour threshold, so they carry the time-and-a-half premium:

• Regular: 40 × $18.50 = $740.00
• Overtime rate: $18.50 × 1.5 = $27.75
• Overtime: 2 × $27.75 = $55.50
• Gross pay: $795.50

Verify it a second way. Pay all 42 hours straight — 42 × $18.50 = $777.00 — then add the half-time premium on the overtime hours only: 2 × $9.25 = $18.50. Total $795.50. Two methods agreeing is a real check; one method done twice is not.

Notice how much the breaks moved the number. The 2:30 of unpaid lunch is worth 2.5 × $27.75 = $69.38 at the overtime rate that week, because it comes off the top of the hours that would have been paid at a premium.

This post uses US federal rules as a general illustration and is not legal or tax advice. Overtime thresholds, break rules and rounding practices vary by state, by contract, and by how you are classified — some states also require daily overtime. Check with your payroll department or a qualified professional for your situation.

What if I worked two different rates in one week?

Price each bucket at its own rate first — never average the hours and apply an average rate. If the week also goes into overtime, US federal rules generally base the premium on a weighted average of the rates you actually earned, not on whichever rate happened to be running past hour 40.

Say you worked 33 hours at a $18.00 day rate and 11 hours at a $22.00 night rate — 44 hours total:

1. Straight-time earnings: 33 × $18.00 = $594.00 and 11 × $22.00 = $242.00, so $836.00.
2. Weighted average regular rate: $836.00 ÷ 44 = $19.00 an hour.
3. Half-time premium on the overtime hours: half of $19.00 is $9.50, and there are 4 hours past 40, so 4 × $9.50 = $38.00.
4. Gross pay: $836.00 + $38.00 = $874.00.

The half-time step looks odd until you see why it works: the straight-time line already paid every one of those 44 hours once, so the overtime hours only need the extra half added on top. Our overtime and time-and-a-half guide walks through more cases.

Does the pay period change the overtime math?

No — and assuming it does is one of the more expensive mistakes on this list. Under US federal rules overtime is generally figured on each workweek separately, even when you are paid every two weeks.

A biweekly period of 44 hours in week one and 36 hours in week two, at $18.00 an hour:

The gap is $36.00 — exactly the 4 overtime hours × the $9.00 half-time premium. The hours are identical either way; only the boundary you total across is different. Keep your time card grouped by workweek and the question never comes up.

How does clock rounding affect the total?

Many US employers round punches to the nearest quarter hour. Applied neutrally — minutes 1 to 7 round down, 8 to 14 round up — it is generally permitted because it evens out over time. A 7:03 AM punch becomes 7:00; a 7:09 AM punch becomes 7:15.

Two things worth knowing:

• Rounding is supposed to cut both ways. A policy that only ever rounds against the employee is a problem, not a rounding convention.
• Round the punches, not the pay. Round clock times to the quarter hour if that's the policy, then do the H:MM math on the rounded times. Rounding a dollar total afterwards produces a number nobody can reconcile back to the time card.

If you keep your own record, log the exact punches anyway. You can always apply your employer's rounding to exact times; you cannot recover exact times from rounded ones.

Is this gross pay or take-home pay?

Gross — the figure before anything is withheld. Hours × rate is the whole of what you can calculate from a time card. Income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare, health premiums, and retirement contributions all come out afterwards, and they depend on your filing status, your elections, and where you live.

So the useful comparison is not "does this match my deposit" but "does the gross on my pay stub match the gross I calculated". If those two agree, your hours were counted correctly. If they don't, you have a specific, checkable discrepancy to raise — with the arithmetic already done.

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate pay from hours worked?

Total the paid time in H:MM, convert to decimal hours by dividing the minutes by 60, then multiply by the rate. A 36:30 week is 36.5 hours, and 36.5 × $16 = $584.00 gross.

How much is 42 hours at $18.50 an hour?

$795.50 in a US workweek where hours past 40 earn time-and-a-half: 40 × $18.50 = $740.00 plus 2 × $27.75 = $55.50. With no overtime premium, the same 42 hours would pay $777.00.

How do I calculate pay for partial hours?

Divide the minutes by 60 before multiplying. 6:20 is 380 minutes, or 6.3333 hours, so at $16 an hour it pays $101.33. Entering it as 6.20 would pay $99.20.

Do I subtract unpaid breaks before calculating pay?

Yes. An 8:30 shift with a 30-minute unpaid lunch is 8:00 of paid time. Short rest breaks your employer pays for stay in the total.

Is overtime calculated per workweek or per pay period?

Per workweek, under US federal rules. A biweekly 44 + 36 split is 80 hours, but the 4 overtime hours in the first week are still owed. General information, not legal advice.

Is the pay I calculate gross or net?

Gross. Withholding and deductions come out after, so your deposit will be smaller than the number you calculate.