What is 7 hours and 45 minutes in decimal?

7.75 hours. Divide the minutes by 60: 45 divided by 60 equals 0.75.

How do you convert minutes to decimal hours?

Divide the minutes by 60. For example, 23 minutes divided by 60 is 0.3833, so 8 hours 23 minutes is 8.38 decimal hours.

Why does payroll use decimal hours instead of hours and minutes?

Gross pay is the hourly rate multiplied by hours worked, and a time value like 8:23 cannot be multiplied directly. Converted to 8.38, the multiplication works.

Can employers round employee time?

Department of Labor guidance accepts rounding to the nearest five minutes, tenth of an hour, or quarter hour, provided the practice averages out over time so employees are fully compensated for all hours actually worked. Some states restrict rounding where exact times are recorded.

Hours and Minutes Calculator — Add Up Time & Convert to Decimal

Q: What is 8.5 hours in hours and minutes?

8 hours and 30 minutes. Multiply the decimal portion by 60: 0.5 times 60 equals 30 minutes.

Entry	Hours	Minutes	Subtotal
1			0:00
2			0:00
3			0:00
4			0:00
5			0:00
6			0:00
7			0:00
8			0:00

The mistake that costs people money

Seven hours and forty-five minutes is 7.75 hours, not 7.45. Minutes run to 60, decimals run to 100, and typing the minutes straight into a payroll field after the decimal point is the single most common timekeeping error there is.

The mistake	What goes wrong	What to do instead
Entering minutes as decimals	"8 hours 30 minutes" typed as 8.30. But 0.30 of an hour is 18 minutes — you just lost 12 minutes.	Divide the minutes by 60. Thirty minutes is 0.50, so enter 8.50.
Subtracting clock times as numbers	9:45 AM to 6:20 PM calculated as 6.20 − 9.45. The arithmetic is meaningless.	Convert to 24-hour first: 18:20 − 9:45. Borrow 60 minutes: 17:80 − 9:45 = 8h 35m, which is 8.58 decimal.
Rounding only downward	Always truncating to the last quarter-hour, so 8h 44m becomes 8h 30m. Over a year this is real unpaid time.	Round to the nearest increment in both directions. 8h 44m is past the midpoint, so it rounds up to 8h 45m — 0.75.
Forgetting the unpaid break	In at 8:00, out at 5:00 recorded as 9 hours, when an unpaid hour of lunch sits inside it.	Subtract unpaid break time before converting. 9 − 1 = 8 hours paid.
Adding decimals that were each rounded	Five days each rounded to two places, then summed — the rounding errors compound.	Total the minutes first, then convert once at the end. This calculator does that.

Minutes to decimal hours

Divide the minutes by 60. That's the whole formula — 23 ÷ 60 = 0.3833, so 8 hours 23 minutes is 8.38 for payroll. The table below has every value from 1 to 59, with both the exact figure and the two-decimal version a payroll system will accept.

Min	Exact	Payroll	Min	Exact	Payroll	Min	Exact	Payroll
1	0.0167	0.02	21	0.3500	0.35	41	0.6833	0.68
2	0.0333	0.03	22	0.3667	0.37	42	0.7000	0.70
3	0.0500	0.05	23	0.3833	0.38	43	0.7167	0.72
4	0.0667	0.07	24	0.4000	0.40	44	0.7333	0.73
5	0.0833	0.08	25	0.4167	0.42	45	0.7500	0.75
6	0.1000	0.10	26	0.4333	0.43	46	0.7667	0.77
7	0.1167	0.12	27	0.4500	0.45	47	0.7833	0.78
8	0.1333	0.13	28	0.4667	0.47	48	0.8000	0.80
9	0.1500	0.15	29	0.4833	0.48	49	0.8167	0.82
10	0.1667	0.17	30	0.5000	0.50	50	0.8333	0.83
11	0.1833	0.18	31	0.5167	0.52	51	0.8500	0.85
12	0.2000	0.20	32	0.5333	0.53	52	0.8667	0.87
13	0.2167	0.22	33	0.5500	0.55	53	0.8833	0.88
14	0.2333	0.23	34	0.5667	0.57	54	0.9000	0.90
15	0.2500	0.25	35	0.5833	0.58	55	0.9167	0.92
16	0.2667	0.27	36	0.6000	0.60	56	0.9333	0.93
17	0.2833	0.28	37	0.6167	0.62	57	0.9500	0.95
18	0.3000	0.30	38	0.6333	0.63	58	0.9667	0.97
19	0.3167	0.32	39	0.6500	0.65	59	0.9833	0.98
20	0.3333	0.33	40	0.6667	0.67

Decimal hours back to minutes

Going the other way, multiply the decimal by 60. This chart matches the one the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes alongside its American Time Use Survey, covering every hundredth from 0.01 to a full hour.

Decimal	Min	Decimal	Min	Decimal	Min	Decimal	Min
0.01	1	0.26	16	0.51	31	0.76	46
0.02	1	0.27	16	0.52	31	0.77	46
0.03	2	0.28	17	0.53	32	0.78	47
0.04	2	0.29	17	0.54	32	0.79	47
0.05	3	0.30	18	0.55	33	0.80	48
0.06	4	0.31	19	0.56	34	0.81	49
0.07	4	0.32	19	0.57	34	0.82	49
0.08	5	0.33	20	0.58	35	0.83	50
0.09	5	0.34	20	0.59	35	0.84	50
0.10	6	0.35	21	0.60	36	0.85	51
0.11	7	0.36	22	0.61	37	0.86	52
0.12	7	0.37	22	0.62	37	0.87	52
0.13	8	0.38	23	0.63	38	0.88	53
0.14	8	0.39	23	0.64	38	0.89	53
0.15	9	0.40	24	0.65	39	0.90	54
0.16	10	0.41	25	0.66	40	0.91	55
0.17	10	0.42	25	0.67	40	0.92	55
0.18	11	0.43	26	0.68	41	0.93	56
0.19	11	0.44	26	0.69	41	0.94	56
0.20	12	0.45	27	0.70	42	0.95	57
0.21	13	0.46	28	0.71	43	0.96	58
0.22	13	0.47	28	0.72	43	0.97	58
0.23	14	0.48	29	0.73	44	0.98	59
0.24	14	0.49	29	0.74	44	0.99	59
0.25	15	0.50	30	0.75	45	1.00	60

The three rounding systems

The Department of Labor's guidance on recording hours notes that where time clocks are used, employers have long recorded start and stop times to the nearest five minutes, tenth of an hour, or quarter hour. All three are accepted practice. Recording exact minutes is always acceptable too, and is what most modern software does by default.

Tenths of an hour — 6-minute blocks

Common in professional services billing. Each tenth is six minutes.

Minutes worked	Rounds to	Decimal
0–2	0 minutes	0.0
3–8	6 minutes	0.1
9–14	12 minutes	0.2
15–20	18 minutes	0.3
21–26	24 minutes	0.4
27–32	30 minutes	0.5
33–38	36 minutes	0.6
39–44	42 minutes	0.7
45–50	48 minutes	0.8
51–56	54 minutes	0.9
57–60	60 minutes	1.0

Quarter hours — 15-minute blocks

Common in manufacturing and shift work. Often called the seven-minute rule, because seven minutes is the point at which rounding flips direction.

Minutes worked	Rounds to	Decimal
0–7	0 minutes	0.00
8–22	15 minutes	0.25
23–37	30 minutes	0.50
38–52	45 minutes	0.75
53–60	60 minutes	1.00

Rounding has to be neutral

The condition attached to all of this in the Department of Labor's guidance is that the arrangement must average out, so that all the time actually worked gets counted and the employee is fully compensated over a period of time.

In practice that means rounding in both directions around a midpoint. A system that only ever rounds down — always truncating to the last completed quarter hour — fails that test. Some states have moved further and restrict rounding where exact punch times are recorded, California most notably. If your system captures the real times, paying the real times is the simplest position to defend.

What the DOL says about recorded time

A few rules from the Wage and Hour Division's guidance on hours worked are worth knowing if you are the one doing the totalling:

Time clocks aren't required. The FLSA doesn't mandate any particular method — only that hours worked are accurately recorded.
Voluntary early or late punches don't count. If someone clocks in early or stays late by choice and performs no work, that time isn't hours worked.
Small discrepancies are expected. Not everyone can punch at the same instant, and minor differences between clock records and actual hours are treated as unavoidable. Large or systematic differences are a different matter and cast doubt on the records.
Regular work always counts. Any part, however small, of fixed or regular working time has to be counted — including identifiable periods someone is routinely required to spend on assigned duties.

There is a narrow exception, the de minimis doctrine, for infrequent and insignificant periods beyond scheduled hours that can't practically be recorded — a matter of seconds or a few minutes, arising unpredictably. It is narrower than most people assume. A pre-shift equipment check that happens every single day is regular work, not de minimis, however short it is.

Worked examples

One day, exact minutes

In at 8:23 AM, out at 5:07 PM. In 24-hour terms that's 17:07 minus 8:23, which is 8 hours 44 minutes. Divide 44 by 60 to get 0.7333, so the day is 8.73 hours to two places.

At $22.50 an hour, the exact time gives 8.7333 × $22.50 = $196.50. Multiply the rounded 8.73 instead and you get $196.43. Seven cents — trivial once, but it shows why totalling in minutes and converting at the end beats converting early.

A week with overtime

Day	In	Out	Hours:min	Decimal
Monday	7:54 AM	4:06 PM	8:12	8.20
Tuesday	7:58 AM	5:32 PM	9:34	9.57
Wednesday	8:01 AM	6:15 PM	10:14	10.23
Thursday	7:55 AM	4:50 PM	8:55	8.92
Friday	8:00 AM	3:45 PM	7:45	7.75
Total			44:40	44.67

Forty hours are straight time and 4 hours 40 minutes are overtime. At $20 an hour that's $800 straight time, plus 4.6667 hours at $30, which is $140 — $940.00 gross. Work from the rounded 4.67 instead and you land on $940.10. The total here was reached by adding the minutes first and converting once at the end, rather than rounding each day and summing the rounded figures.

Common questions

What is 7 hours 45 minutes in decimal?

7.75 hours. 45 ÷ 60 = 0.75.

What is 8.5 hours in hours and minutes?

8 hours 30 minutes. 0.5 × 60 = 30.

Why does payroll want decimals at all?

Because pay is a multiplication. Gross pay is the hourly rate times the hours, and you cannot multiply a rate by 8:23. Converted to 8.38, the arithmetic works.

Does this calculator save my entries?

No. Everything runs in your browser and nothing is stored or sent anywhere. Closing the tab clears it.

Sources

Bureau of Labor Statistics — Conversion Chart: Fraction of an Hour to Minutes, published with the American Time Use Survey documentation.
U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division — FLSA Hours Worked Advisor: Recording Hours Worked. Rounding practice, the averaging requirement, time clock rules, and the de minimis doctrine.
U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division — FLSA Overtime Calculator Advisor, hours worked conversion chart.
29 C.F.R. § 785.48 — recording and computing hours worked.

Both conversion tables on this page were generated from the arithmetic rather than transcribed, and every value was checked against minutes ÷ 60.