Turn hours and minutes into decimal hours, calculate gross pay, subtract unpaid breaks, and handle a separately specified overtime rate.
Open the hours to money calculator · More Finance videos
The calculation
Gross pay = paid hours × hourly rate
Worked example
7 hours 30 minutes is 7 + 30/60 = 7.5 hours. At $18 per hour, gross pay is $135. If that interval includes an unpaid half-hour, 7 paid hours gives $126. In a separate hypothetical example, 40 × $20 plus 2 × $30 totals $860.
Use paid hours and the rate that actually applies to each interval. Overtime rules and deductions vary; gross earnings are not take-home pay.
Video chapters
- 0:00 — 7 hours 30 minutes at $18 per hour
- 0:12 — 30 ÷ 60 = 0.5 hour
- 0:25 — 7.5 × $18 = $135
- 0:40 — Separate attendance time from paid time
- 1:01 — Split hours when rates differ
- 1:21 — Gross pay and take-home pay differ
- 1:40 — $135 ÷ $18 per hour = 7.5 hours
- 1:57 — Convert minutes; multiply paid hours
Read the full transcript
A paid shift lasts seven hours and thirty minutes, at eighteen dollars per hour. What is the gross pay? Before multiplying, turn the minutes into a fraction of an hour. Seven hours thirty minutes is not seven point three hours.
There are sixty minutes in an hour. Thirty divided by sixty is one half, or zero point five. Add that to the seven whole hours to get seven point five paid hours. The decimal part describes a share of sixty minutes.
Multiply paid hours by the hourly rate. Seven point five times eighteen dollars is one hundred thirty-five dollars. The hours cancel against dollars per hour. You can picture seven full eighteen-dollar blocks and one half-sized block worth nine dollars.
Suppose instead the seven-and-a-half-hour span includes a thirty-minute unpaid break. Subtract that half hour before calculating pay. Seven paid hours times eighteen dollars is one hundred twenty-six dollars. Only subtract a break if it is actually unpaid under the applicable arrangement.
If different hours have different rates, calculate each group separately. For a hypothetical agreement, forty hours at twenty dollars gives eight hundred dollars, and two additional hours at thirty dollars gives sixty. Add the groups for eight hundred sixty dollars. Actual overtime rules depend on the job and jurisdiction.
Gross pay is the amount before applicable deductions. Taxes, benefit contributions, or other deductions can make take-home pay different. An hourly multiplication alone does not calculate those items. Keep reimbursements and other additions distinct so you know what the total represents.
Reverse-check the original example by dividing one hundred thirty-five dollars by eighteen dollars per hour. You recover seven point five hours. Multiply the decimal half hour by sixty to recover thirty minutes. That checks both the pay calculation and the time conversion.
Convert minutes by dividing by sixty, identify the paid hours, multiply each group by its correct rate, then add the results. Label the answer as gross pay. In our original example, seven paid hours and thirty minutes at eighteen dollars per hour gives one hundred thirty-five dollars.