Work Hours Calculator With Lunch Break
Enter your start time, end time, and lunch break to get exact decimal hours, total minutes, and weekly or monthly projections.
Tracking exact work hours by hand is tedious and easy to get wrong, especially once you start subtracting unpaid breaks from a shift. This free work hours calculator with lunch break support converts your start time, end time, and break length into precise decimal hours, then projects your weekly and monthly totals automatically. It is built for hourly employees, freelancers invoicing by the hour, payroll administrators, and managers who need to verify timesheets quickly. Instead of guessing at minutes or reaching for a separate break deduction calculator, you get the full breakdown in one place: total hours worked, total minutes, decimal hours for payroll software, and a step-by-step formula showing exactly how the lunch break was subtracted. Enter your shift once and adjust the inputs as needed. Results update instantly with no submit button and no page reload, and you can copy the final hours figure directly to your clipboard for timesheets or invoices.
Shift Details
Unpaid break time deducted from your shift.
Used to project your weekly and monthly totals.
7h 30m
7.50 decimal hours · 450 total minutes
Weekly Projection
37.50 hrs
Monthly Projection
162.38 hrs
Step-by-Step Formula
How to Use This Calculator
1. Enter your start time
Use the time picker to set when your shift began.
2. Enter your end time
If your shift crosses midnight, the calculator automatically adds 24 hours.
3. Enter your lunch break in minutes
This unpaid time is subtracted from your raw shift length.
4. Enter the number of days you work per week
Used to calculate your weekly and monthly hour projections.
How It Works
The calculator finds the raw length of your shift, subtracts your lunch break, then converts the result into decimal hours.
Net Hours = (End Time − Start Time − Lunch Break) ÷ 60Example: a shift from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM is 480 minutes. Subtracting a 30 minute lunch break leaves 450 minutes. Dividing by 60 gives 7.5 decimal hours. At 5 days per week, that projects to 37.5 hours weekly and about 162.4 hours monthly (37.5 × 4.33).
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I calculate work hours with a lunch break?
Subtract your start time from your end time to get the raw shift length, then subtract your unpaid lunch break in minutes. For example, a 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM shift is 8 hours, or 480 minutes. Subtracting a 30 minute lunch break leaves 450 minutes, which equals 7.5 decimal hours.
What is the difference between total hours and decimal hours?
Total hours displays as hours and minutes, such as 7h 30m. Decimal hours convert that same duration into a single number, such as 7.5, which is the format most payroll and invoicing software expects.
Does this calculator handle overnight shifts?
Yes. If your end time is earlier than your start time, the calculator assumes the shift crosses midnight and adds 24 hours automatically before subtracting the lunch break.
How is the weekly and monthly projection calculated?
The weekly projection multiplies your daily decimal hours by the number of days you enter. The monthly projection multiplies the weekly total by 4.33, the average number of weeks in a month.
Can I use this for unpaid breaks other than lunch?
Yes. The lunch break field accepts any unpaid break duration in minutes, including multiple breaks combined into a single total.