8-Hour Shift Calculator
Find your clock-out time. Pick when your 8-hour shift starts, choose your unpaid lunch length in minutes, and optionally add an hourly wage in dollars to see pay per shift and per 40-hour week.
Example: with Start hour 8 · Start minutes :00 · AM or PM AM · Unpaid lunch break 30 minutes (typical) · Hourly wage ($, optional) 20 → Clock-out time: 4:30 PM.
- Time at work8 h 30 m door to door · 8 h paid
- Gross pay$160 per shift · $800 per 40-h week
Computed by the calculator below using its default values. Change any input to see your own numbers.
An 8-hour shift with an unpaid 30-minute lunch spans 8.5 hours door to door. Under FLSA rules, short breaks of 5 to 20 minutes are paid time; bona fide meal periods are not.
How the clock-out time works
An 8-hour shift means 8 paid hours. Any unpaid meal break stretches the time you're physically at work without adding pay, so clock-out = start time + 8 hours + unpaid break. Start at 8:00 AM with a 30-minute lunch and you leave at 4:30 PM.
Federal labor rules draw the line by length: short rest breaks of roughly 5 to 20 minutes count as paid work time, while a bona fide meal period — typically 30 minutes or more, with the employee fully relieved of duty — can be unpaid (29 CFR 785.18 and 785.19).
The 9-to-5 confusion
A classic 9-to-5 spans exactly 8 hours, but with an unpaid 30-minute lunch it delivers only 7.5 paid hours — 37.5 per week, not 40. That's why so many jobs advertised as 8-hour shifts actually run 8:00 to 4:30 or 9:00 to 5:30. If your employer pays your lunch, the two schedules really are equivalent; if not, the half hour comes out of your paycheck.
How it’s calculated
Clock-out = start time + 8 paid hours + unpaid break minutes, wrapping past midnight when needed. Time at work = 8 h + break. Pay = 8 × hourly wage per shift and 40 × wage per five-shift week, gross. The paid/unpaid break distinction follows the FLSA convention: 5-to-20-minute rest breaks are compensable; bona fide meal periods of about 30+ minutes are not.
Assumes a single continuous shift with one unpaid break and no overtime; split shifts, paid lunches, and state meal-break laws (California, for example) change the math.
8-hour shift clock-out times (30-minute unpaid lunch)
| Shift start | Clock out | Door-to-door |
|---|---|---|
| 6:00 AM | 2:30 PM | 8.5 h |
| 7:00 AM | 3:30 PM | 8.5 h |
| 8:00 AM | 4:30 PM | 8.5 h |
| 9:00 AM | 5:30 PM | 8.5 h |
| 3:00 PM | 11:30 PM | 8.5 h |
| 11:00 PM | 7:30 AM (next day) | 8.5 h |
Computed as start + 8 paid hours + 30-minute unpaid meal break.
Common mistakes
- Counting the unpaid lunch as paid time — 8:00 to 4:00 with a 30-minute unpaid lunch is 7.5 paid hours, not 8.
- Leaving the selector on AM for an afternoon start; a 3:00 PM shift ends at 11:30 PM, not 11:30 AM.
- Scheduling 9-to-5 and expecting 40 paid hours — with a daily unpaid half-hour it's 37.5.
- Forgetting overnight wrap: an 11:00 PM start with a 30-minute break clocks out at 7:30 the next morning.
Frequently asked questions
If I start at 9 and take a 30-minute lunch, when do I leave?
5:30 PM. Clock-out = 9:00 AM + 8 paid hours + 0.5 unpaid hours. With a full hour lunch it becomes 6:00 PM.
Is 9-to-5 really an 8-hour shift?
It spans 8 hours, but only counts as 8 paid hours if your meal break is paid. With the common unpaid 30-minute lunch, 9-to-5 pays 7.5 hours — which is why true 8-hour jobs often run 9:00 to 5:30.
Are breaks legally paid?
Under the federal FLSA, short rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes count as paid work time, while bona fide meal periods (typically 30+ minutes, fully relieved of duty) can be unpaid. Several states add their own required meal and rest breaks.
What's the formula?
Clock-out time = start time + 8 hours + unpaid break minutes. Time at work = 8 hours + break; gross pay = 8 × hourly wage.
How many 8-hour shifts make a 40-hour week?
Five. At $20 an hour that's $160 per shift and $800 per week before taxes; overtime rules kick in past 40 hours in a workweek for nonexempt employees.