Overnight shifts: subtract breaks without losing the next day
A 22:00 to next-day 06:00 shift spans eight clock hours. Subtracting a 30-minute unpaid break leaves 7 hours 30 minutes, or 7.5 decimal hours. This example has no daylight-saving transition.
Worked comparison
Treat the end as 30:00 on a continuous timeline: 30:00 − 22:00 = 8:00. Then subtract the break once. If you enter a break interval, 01:00–01:30 lies inside this overnight shift. A paid break should not be entered as unpaid time. Rounding changes the start and end first; it does not independently round the final decimal duration.
This table scrolls horizontally on small screens.
| Start → end | Next day | Unpaid break | Gross → net |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:00 → 06:00 | Yes | 30 min | 8 h → 7.5 h |
| 09:00 → 18:00 | No | 60 min | 9 h → 8 h |
| 09:00 → 09:00 | No | 0 min | 0 h → 0 h |
| 09:00 → 09:00 | Yes | 0 min | 24 h → 24 h |
A mistake to avoid
Equal clock times do not by themselves say whether the shift lasted zero or 24 hours. Choose next-day ending for the latter. A different trap is New York on 2026-03-08: 01:30 to 03:30 is two clock hours but only one elapsed hour because the clock skips forward. Work Hours and Time Card do not take a work-location time zone and do not make that correction.
Apply it to your calculation
- Enter start, end and next-day status; an earlier end is treated as next day.
- Choose duration or an interval for the unpaid break. Check that it fits inside the shift.
- Choose rounding deliberately, press Calculate, then compare exact gross, rounded gross and net time.
Example inputs: review, then calculate: Work Hours Calculator
Sources and limits
This is a clock-time model, not a DST-adjusted payroll record. It does not determine paid-break rights, night-work premiums or an employer’s rounding policy. A break longer than the unrounded shift is an error; rounded net time can be clamped to zero with a warning.
Example notes updated: