Lunch Break Calculator

Enter three things and read your net hours instantly:

1. Clock in — pick the time you started your shift.
2. Clock out — pick the time you finished. Working past midnight? Set a clock-out time earlier than your clock-in and the calculator rolls it over to the next day.
3. Unpaid lunch break — how many minutes your lunch (or any unpaid break) lasted.

The calculator subtracts your unpaid break from the gross time between clock-in and clock-out and shows the net hours you actually worked, in both HH:MM and decimal. Open More options to add a second break, a pay rate, or minute rounding.

A lunch break calculator answers a simple daily question: after your unpaid lunch is taken out, how many hours did you really work? If you are on the clock from 9 to 5 that is eight gross hours, but a one-hour unpaid lunch leaves seven net hours — the number that drives your paycheck.

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, bona fide meal periods (typically 30 minutes or more where you are fully relieved of duties) are usually unpaid, while short rest breaks of 5–20 minutes are normally paid and stay in your total. That is why this tool only deducts the minutes you tell it to: enter the lunch you were not paid for, and leave paid coffee breaks out. Many people search for exactly this — *9 to 5 with an hour lunch, how many hours is that?* or *how many hours do I work after a 30-minute lunch?* — and the deduction is the whole answer.

The math is a two-step subtraction:

Gross hours = clock-out − clock-in
Net hours = Gross hours − (unpaid break minutes ÷ 60)

Example: clock in at 8:00, clock out at 4:30 (a gross span of 8.5 hours), take a 30-minute unpaid lunch. Net = 8.5 − 0.5 = 8.00 hours. To turn decimal hours into HH:MM, multiply the fractional part by 60: 0.25 hours × 60 = 15 minutes, so 7.25 hours is 7h 15m. If you entered a pay rate, the day's gross pay is simply net hours × rate.

Standard office day: In at 9, out at 5, 60-minute lunch. Gross 8.00, minus 1 hour = 7h 00m (7.00 hrs).

Half-hour lunch: The same 9-to-5 shift with only a 30-minute break nets 7h 30m (7.50 hrs) — that extra half hour of paid time adds up over a week.

Retail closing shift: In at 2:00 PM, out at 10:30 PM, 45-minute unpaid break. Gross 8.5, minus 0.75 = 7h 45m (7.75 hrs).

Overnight shift: In at 10:00 PM, out at 6:00 AM, 30-minute lunch. The calculator rolls past midnight for an 8-hour gross span, netting 7h 30m.

- Match your employer's rounding. Many payroll systems round to the nearest 5, 10, or 15 minutes. Open More options and pick the same rule so your figure matches your paystub.
- Only deduct unpaid time. If your workplace pays for a short rest break, don't subtract it — reserve the lunch field for the meal period you clock out for.
- Past midnight is fine. For an overnight shift, set a clock-out time earlier than your clock-in and the calculator adds the 24-hour rollover for you.
- Two breaks? Use the second-break field under More options to subtract a split lunch or an extra unpaid gap without doing the mental math.
- Check weekly totals with our timesheet and work-hours tools once you know a single day's net.