Everhour tracks break-adjusted work time cleanly, while simple break math separates paid short breaks from unpaid meals.
Enter your daily hours and rate to instantly calculate total hours, regular pay, and any overtime — no spreadsheet needed.
The calculator gives you the number — Everhour takes it from there.
One click and you're timing. Start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Everhour.
Set a budget, assign rates, and get alerted before you're over.
Measurement
Track your budget through time or costs
Every report you need — configured your way, always up to date.
Tracked hours flow straight into a polished invoice — no copy-paste, no manual math.
A break calculation answers one practical question: how many paid hours remain after lunch, meal periods, or other unpaid breaks come out of the shift. Start with the clock-in and clock-out span, subtract unpaid break minutes, and leave paid break minutes inside the total. The result gives you paid time for the day before taxes, deductions, overtime premiums, or state-specific rules.
For U.S. timesheets, federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks for adult employees. When an employer provides short breaks, usually about 5 to 20 minutes, federal law treats them as compensable hours worked. A bona fide meal period is generally unpaid only when it lasts at least 30 minutes and the employee is completely relieved from duty.
A simple break total needs four inputs: start time, end time, unpaid break minutes, and pay rate if you want a dollar estimate. U.S. timesheets commonly use month/day/year and 12-hour AM/PM time, so 7:00 AM to 3:30 PM reads as an 8.5-hour span. Crossing midnight needs date awareness, because 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM belongs to the next calendar day.
The low-friction mistake is subtracting every break. Paid short breaks stay in paid time when the employer provides them. Unpaid meal periods come out only when the employee is relieved from duty. If an employee answers calls, watches equipment, serves customers, or keeps working while eating, that time remains hours worked under the federal baseline.
Use this formula for a single shift: paid hours = gross shift hours minus unpaid break hours. Convert break minutes to decimal hours by dividing minutes by 60. A 30-minute unpaid meal equals 0.5 hours. A 15-minute paid rest break equals 0.25 hours, but it does not reduce paid time when federal compensability rules treat it as hours worked.
For example, an employee works from 7:00 AM to 3:30 PM, takes one 30-minute bona fide unpaid meal period, and earns $27.25 per hour. The gross span is 8.5 hours. Subtract 0.5 unpaid hours, leaving 8 paid hours. Straight-time pay is $218.00 before taxes, deductions, overtime premiums, or any state-specific break or premium-pay rule.
A one-off break calculation is enough for a single shift, a quick pay stub check, or a draft invoice total. It also works when every break has already been classified as paid or unpaid. The calculator gives arithmetic, not a legal ruling on whether state law, employer policy, or a contract requires a different break treatment.
A managed workflow fits recurring payroll or billing review. Everhour Time Tracking captures task and project hours through timers or manual entries, works inside common project tools, and feeds timesheets, reporting, budgeting, invoicing, and payroll review. Admin controls such as approvals, locked periods, reminders, and timer rules keep break-adjusted time from turning into a weekly cleanup job.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
High Performer
G2
Summer 2026
Best Ease Of Use
Capterra
Summer 2026
Rated in the top time trackers across G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius — with consistent praise for ease of use, integrations, and support.
Paid rest breaks do not reduce total hours when federal rules treat them as compensable hours worked. Employer-provided short breaks, usually about 5 to 20 minutes, count toward paid time and weekly overtime under the federal baseline. Subtract only unpaid break time that meets the meal-period test or another valid unpaid category.
Subtract only unpaid break minutes. A bona fide meal period is generally unpaid when it lasts at least 30 minutes and the employee is completely relieved from duty. Short paid breaks stay in the paid total. Work performed before a shift, after a shift, or during a meal also stays in hours worked when the employer allows or permits it.
Break time affects weekly overtime when it changes paid hours worked in the fixed workweek. Covered, nonexempt employees in the United States must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a fixed FLSA workweek at not less than one and one-half times the regular rate. Hours cannot be averaged across multiple workweeks for overtime.
A simple break total is enough for payroll only after the employer has correctly classified each break as paid or unpaid and applied any state law, policy, or contract rule. Federal arithmetic separates paid short breaks from bona fide unpaid meal periods. State law can add stricter break, overtime, or premium-pay rules.
Everhour Time Tracking lets users record time with live timers or manual entries against tasks and projects, then sends those entries into timesheets, reports, budgets, invoices, and payroll review. Admins can use approvals, locked periods, reminders, and timer behavior rules to control the review process before hours move downstream.
Everhour timecards can track clock-in, clock-out, breaks, and automatic clock-out behavior, then show daily, weekly, and monthly work-hour totals for review. Weekly timecards can be submitted and approved, and team timesheet data can be downloaded as PDF, CSV, or XLSX files for payroll or archive workflows.
Use a calculator for single shifts. Use Everhour Time Tracking when teams need timers, manual entries, approvals, locked periods, and payroll-ready timesheets tied to real work records.
14-day free trial · No credit card · Cancel anytime
