How to use the hours worked calculator
The gap between the time you clocked and the time you are paid for comes down to which breaks count. Enter your shift, the meal period and any short rest breaks to see compensable hours for the day and for the week.
Legal basis — Under the FLSA regulations, bona fide meal periods, ordinarily 30 minutes or longer during which the employee is completely relieved from duty, are not worktime (29 C.F.R. 785.19). Rest periods of short duration, running from about 5 minutes to about 20 minutes, are common in industry, promote efficiency and must be counted as hours worked (29 C.F.R. 785.18). Overtime is owed at one and one half times the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek (29 U.S.C. 207(a)(1)), and each workweek stands alone, so hours cannot be averaged across weeks (29 C.F.R. 778.104). Federal law does not require employers to provide meal or rest breaks at all; states such as California do, under Cal. Lab. Code 512 and the applicable wage order. Figures current as of September 2026.
Because there is no federal daily overtime rule, this tool projects a weekly total from the days you enter. Several states, including California and Alaska, add daily overtime of their own.
This calculator is for reference only and is not legal advice. Consult a licensed attorney or your state labor agency about your specific situation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not if you worked through it. A meal period is unpaid only when you are completely relieved from duty, so eating at your desk while answering calls is generally compensable time under 29 C.F.R. 785.19. Automatic meal deductions that ignore interrupted lunches are a common source of back pay claims.
Yes, as a rule. Under 29 C.F.R. 785.18 rest periods of 20 minutes or less count as hours worked and cannot be deducted, which is why this calculator leaves short breaks inside the paid total and only deducts meal periods of 30 minutes or more.