Work Hours Calculator
Turn a daily pattern into paid hours a week and what they are worth after tax. Unpaid meal breaks are the usual reason a timesheet total and a payslip disagree, so they are subtracted explicitly here.
Your details
Paid hours a week
35.50 hours
- Paid hours a day
- 7.10 hours
- Paid hours a week
- 35.50 hours
- Unpaid break time a week
- 2.50 hours
- Gross a week
- $1,242.50
- Take-home a week
- $1,027.21
- Gross a year
- $64,610
An unpaid meal break is not paid time. Getting the break wrong is the most common reason a timesheet total and a payslip disagree.
Worked examples, with the arithmetic.
The same sums the tool runs, on real figures. Every number below is computed by the tested engine from the published rates, so the prose and the tool can never disagree.
Why does a 7.6 hour day with a 30 minute break pay 7.1 hours?
7.6 hours on site - 0.5 hours unpaid break = 7.1 paid hours a day x 5 days = 35.5 paid hours a week
The unpaid meal break is not paid time. Across five days a 30-minute break removes 2.5 hours a week, which is why a timesheet total and a payslip rarely match at first glance.
What does an hour of unpaid break cost over a year?
1 hour x 5 days x 52 weeks = 260 hours a year 260 hours x $35 = $9,100.00
An hour of unpaid break a day is 260 unpaid hours a year, worth $9,100.00 at $35 an hour. Whether your break is paid or unpaid comes from your award or agreement, and it is worth checking.
Is this accurate, and how does it work?
The method is published rather than described. Nothing here is a black box, and the limits are listed as plainly as the workings.
- 1Subtract unpaid breaks first. An unpaid meal break is not paid time. A 30-minute break across five days removes 2.5 hours a week from paid time before anything else is calculated.
- 2Multiply out to the week. Paid hours a day times days a week gives the paid week. That figure, not the time between clock-on and clock-off, is what pay is based on.
- 3Apply tax to the resulting pay. The weekly gross is annualised, taxed on the resident scale with the Medicare levy, and divided back, so the weekly take-home agrees with the annual position.
What this does not cover.
- It assumes the same pattern every day of the week. Variable rosters need each day entered separately.
- It does not apply overtime, penalty or shift loadings to hours beyond the ordinary pattern.
- It does not track a rostered day off scheme, where ordinary hours are banked across a cycle.
- It does not account for paid rest breaks, which are already inside the worked hours you enter.
Where these figures come from.
- ATO, Tax rates for Australian residents, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-08-13. Retrieved 2026-09-02.
- ATO, Medicare levy reduction for low-income earners, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-06-30. Retrieved 2026-09-02. Not yet published for 2026-27: this is the prior year’s figure carried forward and labelled as such, never estimated. It is corrected as soon as the ATO publishes.
Every rate this site uses is listed on the Methodology page.
Common questions.
Are meal breaks paid?
An unpaid meal break is unpaid time and is not counted towards hours worked. Shorter rest breaks, often 10 minutes, are usually paid. Which breaks you get and whether they are paid comes from your award or agreement.
How many hours is full-time in Australia?
38 ordinary hours a week is the standard under the National Employment Standards and the ordinary week in most modern awards. Some awards set fewer, so check your own before assuming.
Does this include overtime?
No. It works out paid ordinary hours and what they pay. Hours beyond ordinary hours are paid at a multiple of the base rate, which the overtime page on this site handles.
Why does my timesheet not match my payslip?
Most often the unpaid break. A ten-hour day with an hour of unpaid break is nine paid hours, and over a five-day week that is five hours of difference. Rounding rules in the payroll system and rostered days off are the next most common causes.
Related pages.
- Overtime CalculatorWork out a week mixing ordinary hours, time and a half and double time, and see what the overtime portion is worth.
- Hourly Rate CalculatorConvert an hourly rate to a weekly, fortnightly or annual salary and back again, with take-home pay after income tax and the Medicare levy.
- Weekly Pay CalculatorWork out weekly take-home pay from an annual salary, with income tax and the Medicare levy shown as separate weekly amounts.
- Penalty RatesWhat penalty rates are, and the Saturday, Sunday and public holiday percentages three awards actually publish, read from the award text.
Every calculator on this site is listed on the Wage Calculator page.