TCalc.itMinutes to Decimal Hours
Divide the minutes by 60. Below is that division done once for every minute from 1 to 60, with the rounding columns payroll actually runs on.
Minutes to decimal hours chart
Decimal is the exact value to two places. Tenth rounds to the nearest 6-minute block, and Quarter to the nearest 15 minutes — the two rounding conventions timesheets use. Highlighted rows are the exact tenths, where minutes and decimals line up without a remainder.
| Min | Decimal | Tenth | Quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.02 | 0.0 | 0.00 |
| 2 | 0.03 | 0.0 | 0.00 |
| 3 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 0.00 |
| 4 | 0.07 | 0.1 | 0.00 |
| 5 | 0.08 | 0.1 | 0.00 |
| 6 | 0.10 | 0.1 | 0.00 |
| 7 | 0.12 | 0.1 | 0.00 |
| 8 | 0.13 | 0.1 | 0.25 |
| 9 | 0.15 | 0.2 | 0.25 |
| 10 | 0.17 | 0.2 | 0.25 |
| 11 | 0.18 | 0.2 | 0.25 |
| 12 | 0.20 | 0.2 | 0.25 |
| 13 | 0.22 | 0.2 | 0.25 |
| 14 | 0.23 | 0.2 | 0.25 |
| 15 | 0.25 | 0.3 | 0.25 |
| 16 | 0.27 | 0.3 | 0.25 |
| 17 | 0.28 | 0.3 | 0.25 |
| 18 | 0.30 | 0.3 | 0.25 |
| 19 | 0.32 | 0.3 | 0.25 |
| 20 | 0.33 | 0.3 | 0.25 |
| Min | Decimal | Tenth | Quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | 0.35 | 0.4 | 0.25 |
| 22 | 0.37 | 0.4 | 0.25 |
| 23 | 0.38 | 0.4 | 0.50 |
| 24 | 0.40 | 0.4 | 0.50 |
| 25 | 0.42 | 0.4 | 0.50 |
| 26 | 0.43 | 0.4 | 0.50 |
| 27 | 0.45 | 0.5 | 0.50 |
| 28 | 0.47 | 0.5 | 0.50 |
| 29 | 0.48 | 0.5 | 0.50 |
| 30 | 0.50 | 0.5 | 0.50 |
| 31 | 0.52 | 0.5 | 0.50 |
| 32 | 0.53 | 0.5 | 0.50 |
| 33 | 0.55 | 0.6 | 0.50 |
| 34 | 0.57 | 0.6 | 0.50 |
| 35 | 0.58 | 0.6 | 0.50 |
| 36 | 0.60 | 0.6 | 0.50 |
| 37 | 0.62 | 0.6 | 0.50 |
| 38 | 0.63 | 0.6 | 0.75 |
| 39 | 0.65 | 0.7 | 0.75 |
| 40 | 0.67 | 0.7 | 0.75 |
| Min | Decimal | Tenth | Quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 41 | 0.68 | 0.7 | 0.75 |
| 42 | 0.70 | 0.7 | 0.75 |
| 43 | 0.72 | 0.7 | 0.75 |
| 44 | 0.73 | 0.7 | 0.75 |
| 45 | 0.75 | 0.8 | 0.75 |
| 46 | 0.77 | 0.8 | 0.75 |
| 47 | 0.78 | 0.8 | 0.75 |
| 48 | 0.80 | 0.8 | 0.75 |
| 49 | 0.82 | 0.8 | 0.75 |
| 50 | 0.83 | 0.8 | 0.75 |
| 51 | 0.85 | 0.9 | 0.75 |
| 52 | 0.87 | 0.9 | 0.75 |
| 53 | 0.88 | 0.9 | 1.00 |
| 54 | 0.90 | 0.9 | 1.00 |
| 55 | 0.92 | 0.9 | 1.00 |
| 56 | 0.93 | 0.9 | 1.00 |
| 57 | 0.95 | 1.0 | 1.00 |
| 58 | 0.97 | 1.0 | 1.00 |
| 59 | 0.98 | 1.0 | 1.00 |
| 60 | 1.00 | 1.0 | 1.00 |
60 minutes is 1.00 hour, and the chart repeats from there: 1 hour 20 minutes is 1.33, 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75. Only the minutes ever need converting.
Why payroll wants decimals at all
Pay is a multiplication, and clock time will not multiply. 7 hours 45 minutes times an hourly rate is not a sum any spreadsheet cell can take literally, because 7.45 means seven and a bit under a half in decimal and seven and three-quarters on a clock. Converting to 7.75 first makes the multiplication ordinary arithmetic again.
This is also the error that survives review, because 7.45 looks like a plausible number. A 20-minute daily variance entered as 0.20 instead of 0.33 is a rounding error you would never notice on a single line and roughly three hours of unpaid time across a year of them.
The 6-minute rhythm is the shortcut worth carrying: every 6 minutes is one tenth of an hour. 6 is 0.1, 12 is 0.2, 18 is 0.3, and up to 54 at 0.9. Any minute value can be read off the nearest highlighted row and adjusted by eye.
The rounding rules employers use
- Nearest tenth
- Round to the closest 6-minute block. 0–2 minutes round down, 3–5 round up. Standard in law, consulting and agency billing, where the tenth of an hour is the billing unit.
- Quarter hour
- Round to the closest 15 minutes — the "7-minute rule". 1–7 minutes past the quarter round down, 8–14 round up. Common in hourly payroll and time clocks.
- To the minute
- No rounding at all: divide by 60 and keep two decimals. What most modern payroll software does, and what removes the argument entirely.
- Neutrality
- Under the US FLSA, rounding is permitted only where it does not consistently favour the employer. Always rounding down is not rounding, it is unpaid time.
Whichever convention applies, round once. Rounding each day and then totalling compounds the error five times a week; totalling the exact figures and rounding the result keeps a pay period within a minute of the truth.
For everything past 60 minutes
A shift, minus the unpaid break, straight out as decimal hours. Edit it, or paste a whole week in.
Output is fixed to decimal hours here. The decimal hours calculator switches format, and the timesheet calculator totals a full week.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I convert minutes to decimal hours?
Divide the minutes by 60. 45 minutes is 45 ÷ 60 = 0.75 hours, 20 minutes is 0.33 hours. That is the whole rule, and the chart on this page is just that division carried out once for every minute so nobody has to do it under time pressure on a Friday afternoon.
Why is 6 minutes exactly 0.1 hours?
Because 60 divided by 10 is 6. Every sixth minute lands on a clean tenth: 6 minutes is 0.1, 12 is 0.2, 30 is 0.5, 54 is 0.9. Those rows are highlighted in the chart, and memorising the six of them covers most of the conversions anyone does by hand.
Is 1.5 hours the same as 1 hour 50 minutes?
No, and this is the mistake the chart exists to prevent. 1.5 hours is 1 hour 30 minutes, because 0.5 of an hour is half of 60 minutes. 1 hour 50 minutes is 1.83 hours. Reading a decimal as if the digits after the point were minutes overpays or underpays every timesheet it touches.
What rounding do employers use?
Two conventions dominate. Nearest tenth of an hour rounds to the closest 6-minute block, which is standard in professional services billing. Quarter-hour rounding snaps to the closest 15 minutes and is common in hourly payroll. Both columns are in the chart. In the United States the FLSA permits quarter-hour rounding only where it is neutral over time — it must not systematically favour the employer.
How many decimal places should a timesheet carry?
Two is standard, because dividing by 60 rarely comes out clean: 20 minutes is 0.333… and gets written as 0.33. Two decimals keep the error under a second per entry. Rounding an unrounded total once at the end, rather than every daily figure, is what keeps a week from drifting by several minutes.
What about values the chart does not cover?
A chart covers one hour. A week does not. The calculator on this page takes a whole expression — 8h 10m + 7h 35m + 9h 05m — and prints the answer in decimal hours directly, so a full pay period is one line rather than sixty lookups and a running total.