Guide / overnight shifts
Counting an overnight shift
Consider a shift from 22:00 to 06:30 the next morning. The clock-out number is smaller than the clock-in number, so subtracting them as same-day times would be wrong. Add 24 hours to the end: 06:30 becomes 30:30 in elapsed-time arithmetic. From 22:00 to 30:30 is 8:30. With a 30-minute unpaid meal, worked time is 8:00.
Three overnight examples
| Start–end | Unpaid break | Worked |
|---|---|---|
| 22:00–06:30 | 30 min | 8:00 |
| 23:45–00:15 | 0 min | 0:30 |
| 18:00–02:00 | 45 min | 7:15 |
When start and end match
Identical start and end times are flagged as ambiguous. Leave a day off empty, or enter a nonzero shift under 24 hours. A single filled field produces an error instead of silently adding hours.
The workweek boundary changes the question
A fixed workweek is seven consecutive 24-hour periods under the basic US federal framework; it does not have to start Monday at midnight. Imagine a workweek ending Sunday at midnight and a shift entered on Sunday from 22:00 to Monday 06:00. The eight elapsed hours straddle two workweeks. The main calculator allocates a Sunday-to-Monday shift across its Monday-based workweek boundary. If your employer uses a different fixed boundary, adjust the entries before comparing overtime.
See the US Department of Labor overtime overview for the federal workweek baseline.