How to calculate the hours you worked

How many hours did you work?

Counting hours worked is useful for many things: checking your payslip, logging the hours of a day job, working out what a shift earns, or adding up the hours of a full week. The starting point is a simple sum.

Daily hours = clock-out time minus clock-in time, minus the unpaid break

You can do this sum, and move straight to the hours per week, month and year, with our worked-hours calculator.

The daily-hours sum

Take the clock-out time, subtract the clock-in time and take off the break that is not paid (usually lunch). For a day from 9:00 to 18:00 with a one-hour lunch:

18:00 minus 9:00 = 9 hours; minus 1 hour of break = 8 hours of work

A rest break is not, as a rule, effective working time, so it comes out of the sum. If your break is paid or there is none, enter 0 minutes.

Shifts that roll over midnight

What if the shift ends the next day? When the clock-out time is at or before the clock-in time, 24 hours are added so the sum is positive. Take a night shift from 22:00 to 06:00 with a 30-minute break:

(06:00 plus 24h) minus 22:00 = 8 hours; minus 0h30 of break = 7h30 of work

The calculator does this automatically, so you do not have to add the 24 hours by hand.

From daily hours to the week, month and year

From the daily hours and the days you work each week, you reach the other periods. At 8 hours a day and 5 days a week:

Note the month: you do not multiply the week by 4. A month is, on average, a little more than 4 weeks, so the correct sum spreads the 52 weeks of the year over the 12 months². It is the same rule the Labour Code uses for the hourly value, and it gives a more faithful annual average.

What your hours are worth

If you know the hourly value, multiply it by the hours in each period for the gross value. At €7.50 an hour:

The monthly value (about €1,300) is the same one you reach with the hourly-rate calculator, because both use the 52-weeks-over-12-months rule. To do the sum the other way (from the salary to the hour), that is the calculator to use.

These are gross amounts

The hours counted are working time and the value is gross: it does not yet deduct withholding income tax or the employee’s 11% social security³. To find out how much you take home each month, use the net-salary calculator.

When the hours are "extra"

The normal working limit is 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week¹. Hours beyond that limit are overtime and are not paid at the plain hourly value: they carry statutory uplifts, for example +25% on the first hour on a working day and +50% on a rest day or public holiday. This calculator counts the hours but does not apply the uplifts; for the value of overtime use the overtime calculator.