Calculadora de horas de turno

How to Calculate Shift Hours

The shift hours formula is simple: subtract the start time from the end time. A shift that starts at 9:00 and ends at 17:00 is 8 hours. If the employee took a 30-minute unpaid break, the paid time is 7.5 hours.

Shift hours = End time − Start time − Unpaid breaks

For a team, you repeat this for every shift and then sum each employee's totals. An employee working five 8-hour shifts has a weekly total of 40 hours. The calculator above does this automatically — enter the shifts, click calculate, and see per-employee and team-wide totals instantly.

Overnight Shift Calculations

Overnight shifts trip up many managers because the end time is numerically smaller than the start time. A shift from 22:00 to 06:00 looks like negative 16 hours if you subtract naively.

The fix is the +24 trick: add 24 to the end time when it falls before the start time. So 06:00 becomes 30:00, and 30 − 22 = 8 hours. This calculator applies the +24 rule automatically, so you never need to think about it. Just enter 22:00–06:00 and it returns 8 hours.

If an overnight shift also spans a pay-period boundary (for example, Sunday night into Monday morning), check whether your payroll system assigns the hours to the day the shift started or the day it ended. Most systems use the start date, but local labor laws may differ. Getting this right matters for accurate employee hour tracking.

Weekly Hours Tracking for Compliance

United States (FLSA)

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, non-exempt employees must receive overtime pay (at least 1.5× regular rate) for any hours worked beyond 40 in a single workweek. Accurate weekly totals are not optional — they are a legal requirement. Using a dedicated overtime calculator alongside this shift hours tool helps you estimate the cost impact before the pay period closes.

European Union

The EU Working Time Directive caps the average workweek at 48 hours (calculated over a reference period of up to 17 weeks). Member states may add stricter rules. In Spain, for example, overtime is capped at 80 hours per year per employee. Tracking shift hours weekly lets you flag employees approaching these limits before violations occur.

The 7-Minute Rule

Many US employers round clock-in and clock-out times to the nearest quarter hour using the 7-minute rounding rule. If an employee clocks in 7 minutes or less before the quarter hour, the time rounds down; 8 minutes or more rounds up. While legal under the FLSA, rounding must not systematically short-change employees over time. Tracking exact shift hours helps you audit whether rounding is neutral.

How to Spot Scheduling Imbalances

Once you have per-employee weekly totals, look for red flags:

• Lopsided hours. If two employees work 45+ hours while three others are under 30, you have a distribution problem. Rebalancing shifts across the team can eliminate overtime without hiring.
• Consistent overtime on specific days. If Friday and Saturday always generate overtime, those shifts may need an extra person — or shorter individual shifts spread across more staff.
• Ghost hours. Shifts that are scheduled but never worked (due to no-shows or last-minute changes) inflate planned hours. Comparing scheduled vs. actual hours reveals where your plan diverges from reality.

Understanding the true cost of overtime helps you put a price tag on these imbalances and build a case for better scheduling practices.

Shift Hours Formula Reference

This calculator uses the standard formulas used by payroll and scheduling professionals:

• Single shift duration = End time − Start time (add 24 to end time if overnight)
• Daily hours per employee = Sum of all shift durations for that employee on a given day
• Weekly hours per employee = Sum of daily hours across all days worked
• Team total = Sum of all employees' weekly hours
• Average hours per employee = Team total ÷ Number of employees

For teams that need ongoing hour tracking beyond a one-time calculation, automated employee time tracking eliminates manual data entry and keeps records audit-ready.