ReckonBoxHow the hours calculator works
An hours calculator totals the time worked across a week from clock-in and clock-out times, taking off unpaid breaks, and splits what counts as overtime. Fill in the days you worked, set the break in minutes, and the tool returns the daily hours, the weekly total in both hours:minutes and decimal, the overtime split, and the gross pay if you enter a rate.
Pick the region first, because that's the setting most tools hide. Overtime isn't a convention, it's a legal threshold, and it moves when you cross a border. Everything else on the page follows from that choice.
How do I calculate hours worked?
Hours worked is the clock-out time minus the clock-in time, with any unpaid break subtracted. A shift from 9:00 to 17:30 is 8 hours 30 minutes on the clock, and a 30-minute unpaid lunch brings it to 8 hours worked. Payroll wants that as a decimal, so 8:45 becomes 8.75 and 8:30 becomes 8.5.
Unpaid breaks have to come out before anything else, because overtime is measured on hours actually worked. Leave a half-hour lunch in the total across five days and you have manufactured 2.5 hours that nobody owes you. Overnight shifts are handled too: clock on at 18:00, off at 08:00, and the tool reads 14 hours, marking the day as overnight in the table.
When does overtime start?
Overtime is the hours worked past a legal weekly threshold, paid at a multiplier set by that jurisdiction. The United States and India draw the line in different places, and using the wrong one changes the answer by hours and by money.
| Region | Overtime begins | Multiplier | Daily limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | After 40 hours in a workweek | 1.5 times the regular rate | No federal cap |
| India | After 48 hours in a week | 2 times the ordinary wage | 9 hours a day |
The US Department of Labor puts overtime at hours worked past 40 in a workweek, paid at one and one-half times the regular rate, and ADP defines that regular rate as the workweek's pay divided by the hours actually worked. India runs a 9-hour day and a 48-hour week, with overtime at twice the wage under Section 59 of the Factories Act 1948.
Getting this wrong is not hypothetical. One well-known time-tracking vendor publishes a work hours calculator written specifically for India that still reports regular hours as anything up to 40, the American figure, on a page about Indian labour law. A worker in Pune following it would count 8 hours of overtime that the 48-hour rule says are ordinary time.
Worked examples
Five 9-hour days come to 45 hours. On the US rule that is 40 regular and 5 overtime, and at 20 an hour the week pays 800 plus 150, or 950 gross. Run the same 45 hours through the India rule and none of it is overtime, because the threshold is 48.
Six 9-hour days is where India bites: 54 hours total, 48 regular and 6 overtime, and at 100 an hour that is 4,800 plus 1,200, or 6,000 gross. The daily flag also lights up if any single day passes 9 hours, which is a separate limit from the weekly one.
A single shift works the same way. Clock in at 9:00, out at 17:15, no break, and you have 8.25 hours; at 25 an hour that shift is worth 206.25.
Using it as a time card
A time card is the record of when each shift started, when it ended, and what break came out of it, totalled for the pay period. That is precisely what this page produces, so the hours calculator and the time card calculator are the same tool wearing two names. The daily table, the weekly totals and the gross pay make up the card, and your browser's print command puts it on paper or into a PDF.
One rule matters more than any formatting. Overtime is measured on a single workweek of seven consecutive days, and it cannot be averaged across a longer pay period. Run a biweekly card as two separate weeks and add the results. Say you work 45 hours one week and 35 the next: the correct answer is 5 overtime hours in week one plus a normal 35-hour week, and the tempting shortcut of averaging 80 hours down to 40 a week wipes out overtime that is genuinely owed. Payroll tools that handle two-week periods call this out as a common and expensive mistake.
Semi-monthly and monthly periods work the same way, with one wrinkle: those periods don't line up with whole weeks, so a week straddling two pay periods is still totalled as one week for overtime and then split for payment. That's a matter of payroll policy, which is why this page stops at the week and tells you to add them.
What this calculator does not do
It does not round. Every minute is totalled exactly, with no quarter-hour or six-minute rounding applied, because schemes like the "7 minute rule" are employer policy and applying one silently would change your hours. It does not price daily overtime either: days past the daily limit are flagged, but California's time and a half past 8 hours and double time past 12, and the equivalent rules elsewhere, are too varied to bake in.
The output is gross pay, before any deduction. Tax, provident fund and the rest belong to a payroll calculation, and for an Indian salary the take-home salary calculator does that next step. For arithmetic on a single duration, the time calculator is the lighter tool.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate hours worked? Subtract the clock-in time from the clock-out time, then take off any unpaid break. A shift from 9:00 to 17:30 with a 30-minute lunch is 8 hours, and one from 8:45 to 17:30 with no break is 8 hours 45 minutes, which payroll reads as 8.75. Totalling those daily figures gives the week.
When does overtime start in the US? Overtime under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act begins after 40 hours in a workweek, paid at one and one-half times the regular rate, per the US Department of Labor. Five 9-hour days come to 45 hours, so 40 are regular and 5 are overtime, and at 20 an hour that is 800 plus 150, or 950 gross.
When does overtime start in India? Indian factory rules set a 9-hour day and a 48-hour week, with overtime paid at twice the ordinary wage under Section 59 of the Factories Act 1948. Six 9-hour days total 54 hours, so 48 are regular and 6 are overtime, and at 100 an hour that is 4,800 plus 1,200, or 6,000 gross.
Why does the overtime rule change with the region? Because overtime is set by law and the law differs by country. The United States uses a 40-hour week at 1.5 times pay, while India uses a 48-hour week at 2 times pay, so applying the American threshold to an Indian timesheet overstates the overtime by 8 hours. Pick the region, or set a custom threshold and multiplier for your own contract.
How are unpaid lunch breaks handled? The break is subtracted from the raw span between clock-in and clock-out, so it never counts as time worked. Enter it in minutes per day: a 9:00 to 18:00 shift with 30 minutes off is 8.5 hours, not 9. Keeping unpaid breaks out of the total matters because overtime is measured on hours actually worked.
Does the calculator handle overnight shifts? Yes. When the clock-out time falls before the clock-in time, the shift is treated as crossing midnight and 24 hours are added, so a 18:00 to 08:00 shift counts as 14 hours. Those days are marked overnight in the daily table so you can check them at a glance.
Does this round the minutes like a timesheet? No. Every minute is totalled exactly, with no rounding to the nearest 5, 6 or 15 minutes. Rounding schemes such as the quarter-hour "7 minute rule" are employer policy rather than arithmetic, so applying one here would quietly change your hours.
What about daily overtime limits? Days that run past the daily limit are flagged, with the limit set to 9 hours for India and switched off for the United States, which has no federal daily cap. The tool does not price those hours at a premium, because daily overtime rules vary: California pays time and a half past 8 hours in a day and double time past 12.
Is this a time card calculator? Yes, this is a time card calculator. Filling in the clock-in time, the clock-out time and the unpaid break for each day is exactly what a weekly time card records, and the daily table plus the weekly totals and gross pay is the card itself. Use your browser print command to put it on paper or into a PDF.
How do I handle a biweekly or monthly pay period? Total each workweek separately and add the results, because overtime is measured on a single workweek of seven consecutive days and may not be averaged across a longer pay period. Two weeks of 45 and 35 hours are 5 overtime hours plus a 35-hour week under the US rule, never 80 hours averaged to 40 with no overtime at all.