Decimal Hours Converter
7:45 becomes 7.75, and back again
Payroll forms and spreadsheets want decimal hours. Clocks, calendars and human memory produce hours and minutes. This page converts between the two in either direction, and the chart further down covers every minute from 1 to 60 if you would rather read it off a table.
Hours and minutes to decimal
Decimal hours to hours and minutes
How the conversion works
An hour has 60 minutes, so a decimal hour is simply the minutes divided by 60. Everything else follows from that one division. The direction that trips people up is the reverse one, because 0.4 hours looks like it should be 40 minutes and is in fact 24.
Decimal hours = hours + (minutes / 60)
Minutes = (decimal hours - whole hours) x 60
:15 = 0.25, :30 = 0.50, :45 = 0.75
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Only the minutes convert. The whole hours are carried across unchanged, so 7:45 keeps its 7.
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The quarter hours are the ones worth memorising: 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75.
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Two decimal places is the payroll convention, so 20 minutes shows as 0.33 rather than 0.3333.
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Decimal hours over 24 stay as they are: a 40 hour week is 40.00, never 16.00.
Worked example
A shift of 7 hours and 45 minutes, converted for a payroll form and then checked back:
45 minutes / 60 = 0.75
7 hours + 0.75 = 7.75 decimal hours
Checking back: 0.75 x 60 = 45 minutes, so 7.75 is 7:45
At 20 per hour: 7.75 x 20 = 155.00
Had the same shift been written as 7.45 on the form, it would have been read as 7 hours 27 minutes and paid at 149.00 - six pounds, dollars or euros short for one day, and about thirty for the week.
Minutes to decimal hours chart
Every minute from 1 to 60, rounded to two decimal places. Left column 1 to 30, right column 31 to 60.
1 min = 0.02
2 min = 0.03
3 min = 0.05
4 min = 0.07
5 min = 0.08
6 min = 0.10
7 min = 0.12
8 min = 0.13
9 min = 0.15
10 min = 0.17
11 min = 0.18
12 min = 0.20
13 min = 0.22
14 min = 0.23
15 min = 0.25
16 min = 0.27
17 min = 0.28
18 min = 0.30
19 min = 0.32
20 min = 0.33
21 min = 0.35
22 min = 0.37
23 min = 0.38
24 min = 0.40
25 min = 0.42
26 min = 0.43
27 min = 0.45
28 min = 0.47
29 min = 0.48
30 min = 0.50
31 min = 0.52
32 min = 0.53
33 min = 0.55
34 min = 0.57
35 min = 0.58
36 min = 0.60
37 min = 0.62
38 min = 0.63
39 min = 0.65
40 min = 0.67
41 min = 0.68
42 min = 0.70
43 min = 0.72
44 min = 0.73
45 min = 0.75
46 min = 0.77
47 min = 0.78
48 min = 0.80
49 min = 0.82
50 min = 0.83
51 min = 0.85
52 min = 0.87
53 min = 0.88
54 min = 0.90
55 min = 0.92
56 min = 0.93
57 min = 0.95
58 min = 0.97
59 min = 0.98
60 min = 1.00
Read it the other way for the reverse conversion: find the decimal value your form shows and the minutes are on the left of the equals sign. A value that lands between two rows, such as 0.44, falls between them in minutes too - in that case between 26 and 27.
Decimal hours chart: tenths and hundredths of an hour
A tenth of an hour is 6 minutes and a hundredth of an hour is 0.6 minutes, which is 36 seconds. Everything in this table follows from those two: two tenths is 12 minutes, three tenths is 18, and a payroll system asking for hours in hundredths simply wants two decimal places, so 8 hours 30 minutes goes in as 8.50.
0.05 = 3 min
0.10 = 6 min
0.15 = 9 min
0.20 = 12 min
0.25 = 15 min
0.30 = 18 min
0.35 = 21 min
0.40 = 24 min
0.45 = 27 min
0.50 = 30 min
0.55 = 33 min
0.60 = 36 min
0.65 = 39 min
0.70 = 42 min
0.75 = 45 min
0.80 = 48 min
0.85 = 51 min
0.90 = 54 min
0.95 = 57 min
1.00 = 60 min
Hours and minutes to decimal: common conversions
1 hour 8 minutes is 1.13 decimal hours, 2 hours 50 minutes is 2.83, and 8 hours 51 minutes is 8.85. The whole hours carry across untouched and only the minutes are divided by 60, so the table below is really a minutes table with the hours written back in front.
1 h 8 min = 1.13
1 h 15 min = 1.25
1 h 25 min = 1.42
1 h 56 min = 1.93
2 h 5 min = 2.08
2 h 15 min = 2.25
2 h 30 min = 2.50
2 h 42 min = 2.70
2 h 50 min = 2.83
2 h 55 min = 2.92
3 h 3 min = 3.05
3 h 15 min = 3.25
3 h 20 min = 3.33
3 h 45 min = 3.75
3 h 50 min = 3.83
4 h 30 min = 4.50
6 h 30 min = 6.50
7 h 30 min = 7.50
8 h 20 min = 8.33
8 h 51 min = 8.85
Decimal hours to hours and minutes: conversion chart
1.33 hours is 1:20, 1.875 hours is 1:53 and 5.67 hours is 5:40. This is the direction that catches people out, because 1.45 hours looks like 1 hour 45 minutes and is in fact 1 hour 27.
1.15 = 1:09
1.25 = 1:15
1.3 = 1:18
1.33 = 1:20
1.41 = 1:25
1.45 = 1:27
1.47 = 1:28
1.5 = 1:30
1.67 = 1:40
1.75 = 1:45
1.875 = 1:53
2.21 = 2:13
2.25 = 2:15
2.75 = 2:45
2.83 = 2:50
5.67 = 5:40
8.15 = 8:09
8.5 = 8:30
Every row is rounded to the nearest minute, which is the finest a two-decimal value can honestly be read.
Payroll rounding: 6-minute and 15-minute increments
Time clocks turn punches into decimal hours before payroll ever sees them, and most of them round the punch to a fixed increment on the way. Six-minute rounding is the tenth-of-an-hour scheme: every punch lands on a 0.1 step, so a 9:02 punch is recorded as 9.0 and a 9:04 punch as 9.1. Attorneys bill in the same units, which is why legal time entries arrive as 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and never as 0.13.
Fifteen-minute rounding, the quarter hour, moves in 0.25 steps: 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00. It is the coarser of the two - a punch can move by up to seven and a half minutes - so the rule that keeps it fair is rounding to the nearest quarter in both directions, up as readily as down, rather than always down to the employer's advantage.
In the United States that is not just good manners. The federal wage regulation on time clocks, 29 CFR 785.48, accepts rounding to the nearest five minutes, tenth of an hour or quarter hour only where it averages out over time so that employees are paid for all the time they actually worked; a scheme that always rounds in the employer's favour fails that test. Both increments on this page are the ones that regulation names.
Where the rounding actually matters
Rounding to two decimals loses at most 0.005 of an hour, which is eighteen seconds. That is irrelevant on one entry and still irrelevant across a year. What does bite is rounding the same entry twice: convert 7:50 to 7.83, let a form that wants one decimal round it to 7.8, convert back, and the shift has quietly become 7:48. Convert once, from the original minutes, and keep the minutes as the record you go back to.
Stop retyping your hours
Converting a timesheet by hand means the real record is a note somewhere. TickTappy keeps the minutes themselves, and shows both hh:mm and decimal totals for the day and the week. Free, no account needed.
FAQ
How do I convert minutes to decimal hours?
Divide the minutes by 60. Fifteen minutes is 15 / 60 = 0.25 hours, twenty minutes is 20 / 60 = 0.33 hours, and forty-five minutes is 45 / 60 = 0.75 hours. To go the other way, multiply the decimal by 60: 0.4 hours x 60 = 24 minutes.
Is 7.75 hours the same as 7 hours 75 minutes?
No, and confusing the two is the most expensive mistake in this corner of arithmetic. 7.75 hours is 7 hours 45 minutes. There is no such thing as 75 minutes past the hour - after 59 minutes the hour rolls over.
Why does payroll ask for decimal hours at all?
Because pay is a multiplication. Decimal hours multiply by an hourly rate directly, while hours and minutes do not: 7:30 times 20 is meaningless until you turn it into 7.5 times 20. Spreadsheets and payroll software want the number they can multiply.
What about minutes that do not divide evenly, like 20?
Twenty minutes is exactly one third of an hour, so its decimal form repeats: 0.3333... The chart on this page rounds to two decimal places (0.33), which is what payroll forms expect. Over a full week the rounding is worth a few seconds, not a few minutes.
Which minute values convert exactly?
Any whole number of minutes that divides into 60 without a remainder: 6 minutes is 0.1, 15 is 0.25, 30 is 0.5, 36 is 0.6 and 45 is 0.75. Everything else rounds, which is why the quarter hour became the standard billing unit.
How many minutes is 0.25 hours?
Fifteen minutes. 0.25 x 60 = 15, which is why a quarter of an hour and 0.25 hours are two names for the same thing. The other quarters follow the same way: 0.5 hours is 30 minutes and 0.75 hours is 45.
What is .83 of an hour?
Fifty minutes. 0.83 x 60 = 49.8, which rounds to 50, and 50 minutes back the other way is 50 / 60 = 0.8333, written as 0.83. So a timesheet line of 2:50 is 2.83 decimal hours.
What decimal is 15 minutes of an hour?
0.25. Fifteen divides into 60 exactly four times, so this one converts with no rounding at all. On a payroll form, 8 hours 15 minutes is written 8.25.
What is a tenth of an hour in minutes?
Six minutes. Sixty minutes divided by ten is 6, so 0.1 is 6 minutes, 0.2 is 12 and 0.5 is 30. That is the whole reason six-minute increments are the billing unit wherever tenths of an hour are used.
What is 30 minutes in decimal?
0.50 hours. Thirty is exactly half of sixty, so half an hour is 0.5 with no rounding. On a timesheet, 6 hours 30 minutes is 6.50 and 8:30 is 8.50.
What is 20 minutes in decimal?
0.33 hours. Twenty minutes is a third of an hour, 0.3333 repeating, which payroll forms write as 0.33. So 1 hour 20 minutes is 1.33 and 4:20 is 4.33.
What is 40 minutes in decimal?
0.67 hours. Forty minutes is two thirds of an hour, 0.6667, rounded to 0.67. A 7 hour 40 minute shift is written 7.67.
What is 45 minutes in decimal?
0.75 hours. Forty-five is three quarters of sixty, so it converts exactly: 45 / 60 = 0.75. That is why 7:45 and 7.75 are the same length of time.
What is 50 minutes in decimal?
0.83 hours. 50 / 60 = 0.8333, which rounds to 0.83. Going back, 0.83 x 60 is 49.8 minutes, so the chart rounds it to 50. A timesheet line of 3:50 is 3.83.
What is 10 minutes in decimal?
0.17 hours. Ten minutes is a sixth of an hour, 0.1667, rounded to 0.17. Note that 0.1 hours is not ten minutes but six: a tenth of an hour and ten minutes are different amounts.
How long is 5.67 hours?
5 hours and 40 minutes. Only the 0.67 converts: 0.67 x 60 = 40.2 minutes, which rounds to 40. Two thirds of an hour is 0.6667, so 5.67 is the two-decimal way of writing five and two thirds hours.
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