What the subtraction actually is
Hours worked equals clock-out minus clock-in minus unpaid break. Every complication in a timesheet is a variation on that one line. In at 09:00 and out at 19:00 is a ten-hour span; take an hour of lunch and nine hours are worked. Five of those days is forty-five hours, and the last five hours are the ones people argue about.
The break is the part most often entered wrong. What comes out is time you were relieved of duty and free to leave the station. A lunch eaten at the desk while answering the phone is not that, and neither is a stretch of waiting that the employer controls. If you were available and expected to respond, it is closer to worked time than to break time. Enter only the minutes you were genuinely off.
Why the month is 4.348 weeks and not four
A year is 365 days, which is 52.14 weeks, which is 4.348 weeks per month. Multiplying a week by four undercounts by roughly seventeen days a year — nearly three weeks of pay in the wrong place. The monthly figure on this page uses 4.348, so it lands close to the annual total divided by twelve rather than close to nothing in particular.
| Weekly hours | Monthly (x 4.348) | Monthly (x 4, wrong) | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| 35 | 152.2 | 140 | 1,820 |
| 40 | 173.9 | 160 | 2,080 |
| 45 | 195.6 | 180 | 2,340 |
| 50 | 217.4 | 200 | 2,600 |
The annual column assumes fifty-two worked weeks with no holiday and no leave. Subtract your own time off before comparing it to a salary.
Overnight shifts and the night window
If the end time is earlier in the day than the start time, the shift is read as ending the next day. A 22:00 start with a 07:00 finish is nine hours on the clock, not a negative number. The page also counts how many of those minutes fall between 22:00 and 06:00, because a lot of shift work carries a differential for exactly that window.
Two limits on that count. The break is subtracted from the night hours first, which is the pessimistic assumption — if you take your break during daylight the night figure here is slightly low. And whether a differential is paid at all is a matter of the employer's policy or a union agreement, not something that follows from the clock. The field is blank by default for that reason.
The threshold field is doing a lot of work
Everything above the threshold gets the multiplier and everything below it does not, and both numbers are yours to set. Forty is the default because federal law sets a forty-hour weekly point for non-exempt employees, but that single sentence hides several things this page cannot see: whether your job is exempt from overtime at all, whether your state adds a daily rule on top of the weekly one, and whether your contract is more generous than either. Change the threshold to whatever governs your work and the split follows.
For splitting the same week across specific days, thresholds and a double-time tier, the overtime pay calculator handles the pay side in more detail, and the weekly hours tracker takes seven separate day entries instead of one repeated shift.
Questions people ask
The end time is earlier than the start time. Did it calculate that right?
Yes. When the end is earlier than the start the shift is treated as crossing midnight, so 22:00 to 07:00 comes out as nine hours on the clock rather than as minus fifteen. The night-window count follows the same shift, so that example puts eight hours between 22:00 and 06:00 before the break is taken out. The one case to watch is a shift genuinely longer than sixteen hours, which is flagged in the results because it is far more often two times entered in the wrong order than a real day.
Should paid breaks be entered in the break field?
No. The field subtracts time from your worked hours, so only unpaid time belongs there. Short paid rest periods, where the employer keeps paying and you stay on the clock, should be left in — they are worked time and taking them out understates both your hours and your pay. If your day has a mix, enter only the total unpaid minutes.
Does the monthly number account for holidays and vacation?
It does not. The monthly and annual figures repeat the same week for the full calendar, which is a ceiling rather than a forecast. If you take two weeks of vacation and get eight holidays, that is roughly ten weeks-worth of days off across the year — knock those off the annual figure before comparing it to a salary or using it to work out an effective hourly rate.
Can this tell me whether I am owed overtime pay?
It cannot, and no calculator can. It multiplies the hours you enter by the threshold and multiplier you enter, and both of those come from your situation rather than from the arithmetic. Whether a job is exempt from overtime turns on duties and pay structure, states layer their own rules on top of the federal weekly one, and some contracts pay more than any law requires. Use the output as a picture of your own hours, and take the entitlement question to your state labor agency or an employment lawyer.