How to convert hours and minutes to decimal hours
Divide the minutes by 60 and add the result to the whole hours.
Decimal hours = hours + minutes ÷ 60
For 7 hours and 45 minutes: 45 ÷ 60 = 0.75, so the time is 7.75 hours. For 8 hours and 20 minutes: 20 ÷ 60 = 0.333…, which rounds to 8.33 hours.
The hours never change. Only the minutes need converting, which is why the chart below covers 1 to 60 minutes.
Minutes to decimal hours chart
Find the minutes on the left and read the decimal on the right, then add it to the whole hours. Print it and keep it next to the time clock.
| Minutes | Decimal |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.02 |
| 2 | 0.03 |
| 3 | 0.05 |
| 4 | 0.07 |
| 5 | 0.08 |
| 6 | 0.10 |
| 7 | 0.12 |
| 8 | 0.13 |
| 9 | 0.15 |
| 10 | 0.17 |
| 11 | 0.18 |
| 12 | 0.20 |
| 13 | 0.22 |
| 14 | 0.23 |
| 15 | 0.25 |
| Minutes | Decimal |
|---|---|
| 16 | 0.27 |
| 17 | 0.28 |
| 18 | 0.30 |
| 19 | 0.32 |
| 20 | 0.33 |
| 21 | 0.35 |
| 22 | 0.37 |
| 23 | 0.38 |
| 24 | 0.40 |
| 25 | 0.42 |
| 26 | 0.43 |
| 27 | 0.45 |
| 28 | 0.47 |
| 29 | 0.48 |
| 30 | 0.50 |
| Minutes | Decimal |
|---|---|
| 31 | 0.52 |
| 32 | 0.53 |
| 33 | 0.55 |
| 34 | 0.57 |
| 35 | 0.58 |
| 36 | 0.60 |
| 37 | 0.62 |
| 38 | 0.63 |
| 39 | 0.65 |
| 40 | 0.67 |
| 41 | 0.68 |
| 42 | 0.70 |
| 43 | 0.72 |
| 44 | 0.73 |
| 45 | 0.75 |
| Minutes | Decimal |
|---|---|
| 46 | 0.77 |
| 47 | 0.78 |
| 48 | 0.80 |
| 49 | 0.82 |
| 50 | 0.83 |
| 51 | 0.85 |
| 52 | 0.87 |
| 53 | 0.88 |
| 54 | 0.90 |
| 55 | 0.92 |
| 56 | 0.93 |
| 57 | 0.95 |
| 58 | 0.97 |
| 59 | 0.98 |
| 60 | 1.00 |
Why payroll uses decimal hours
Pay is hours multiplied by an hourly rate, and that only works when the hours are a single number. Payroll systems, invoices and most timesheet software store hours as decimals for this reason.
The difference is real money. Say you worked 37 hours and 45 minutes at $18.50 an hour:
| Hours entered | Calculation | Pay |
|---|---|---|
| 37.75 (correct) | 37.75 × $18.50 | $698.38 |
| 37.45 (typed as clock time) | 37.45 × $18.50 | $692.83 |
Typing the clock time straight into a payroll field underpays this week by $5.55.
Common mistakes
Reading 7.30 as 7 hours 30 minutes
In decimal hours, 7.30 means 7 hours and 18 minutes (0.30 × 60). Seven and a half hours is 7.50. If a timesheet shows a decimal point, check which format it means before you add anything up.
Rounding each day before adding them up
Five days of 7 hours 50 minutes is 39 hours 10 minutes, or 39.17 hours. Rounding each day to 7.83 first and adding gives 39.15 hours. The gap grows with every entry, so this calculator adds the exact times first and rounds only the total.
Entering more than 59 minutes in the minutes box
That works here: 90 minutes becomes 1.50 hours. Some timesheet systems reject it, so convert long breaks into hours and minutes before entering them elsewhere.
Rounding time to tenths or quarter hours
Many employers record time in tenths of an hour (6-minute steps) or quarter hours (15-minute steps). Under federal rules, an employer may round to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth of an hour or quarter hour, as long as the rounding does not end up shortchanging employees over time. See 29 CFR 785.48.
With quarter-hour rounding, the usual rule is that 1 to 7 minutes round down and 8 to 14 minutes round up. So 7 hours 52 minutes is recorded as 7.75 hours, and 7 hours 53 minutes as 8.00 hours.
| Quarter hour | Minutes | Decimal |
|---|---|---|
| One quarter | 15 | 0.25 |
| Half | 30 | 0.50 |
| Three quarters | 45 | 0.75 |
Converting decimal hours back to hours and minutes
Multiply the part after the decimal point by 60. For 8.6 hours: 0.6 × 60 = 36, so the time is 8 hours 36 minutes. For 5.25 hours: 0.25 × 60 = 15, so 5 hours 15 minutes.