Clock and hours · rules read October 11, 2026
Work hours per week, month and year
Enter your usual start and end, the unpaid break, the days a week and the paid weeks a year; the calculator gives the weekly, monthly and yearly totals.
Written by Radif Partners · How the hours are counted · Editorial policy
Hours per week
40:00
40.00 decimal hours, 8:00 a day
| Hours per day | 8.00 h |
| Hours per week | 40.00 h |
| Average hours per month | 173.3 h |
| Hours per year | 2,080 h |
Straight time only: hours past 40 in a workweek earn overtime under the FLSA, and some states add a daily rule. How this is calculated.
A regular schedule of 8 hours a day, five days a week, adds up to 40 hours a week, 173.33 hours in an average month and 2,080 hours in a year of 52 weeks, the figure payroll and salary conversions use as full time. The monthly figure is an average because months hold between four and five weeks; dividing the yearly total by 12 is what keeps it fair. The calendar year does not line up exactly with 52 weeks: 2026 has 261 weekdays, so someone paid for every weekday at 8 hours would log 2,088 hours, and federal agencies use an average of 2,087 hours for that reason. Compressed schedules change the days, not always the total: four ten-hour days also make 40 hours. Under the federal rule overtime starts only after 40 hours in the workweek, but some states count by the day, which the calculator shows.
From a weekly schedule to a year
Yearly pay (52 weeks)
$41,600
| Hours a year | 2,080 |
| Monthly average | $3,467 |
Schedules side by side
Every row below comes from the hours of each workday multiplied out by the engine: the week, the year at 52 weeks, and the average month at one twelfth of the year. The column on the right is the overtime the week holds under the federal rule alone, which counts only the weekly total. A schedule with zero there can still produce overtime in a state that counts by the day.
| Schedule | Hours a week | Hours a year | Average month | Federal OT a week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Five 8-hour days | 40 | 2,080 | 173.33 | 0 |
| Four 10-hour days | 40 | 2,080 | 173.33 | 0 |
| Three 12-hour days | 36 | 1,872 | 156.00 | 0 |
| Five 7.5-hour days | 37.5 | 1,950 | 162.50 | 0 |
| Five 6-hour days | 30 | 1,560 | 130.00 | 0 |
| Four 5-hour days | 20 | 1,040 | 86.67 | 0 |
| Six 9-hour days | 54 | 2,808 | 234.00 | 14 |
The six-day row is the one people misjudge most. Fifty-four hours feel like a long week, and they are: 14 of them are paid at 1.5 times the regular rate under the federal overtime rule, every single week. Over a year that is a large share of earnings that a simple hours times rate estimate leaves out, so the overtime calculator is the better tool for that pattern.
Where the yearly figure of 2,080 comes from, and when it is off
The figure is pure arithmetic: 40 hours times 52 weeks. It assumes every week is paid, holidays and vacation included, which is how most salaried jobs and most hourly-to-salary conversions treat the year. The salary to hourly calculator uses it as its default divisor.
A real calendar year is 52 weeks and one or two days. In 2026 the extra day is a Thursday, giving 261 weekdays, of which 11 are observed federal holidays and 250 are ordinary business days. An hourly worker paid for every weekday at 8 hours ends the year with 2,088 hours rather than 2,080. The Office of Personnel Management averages the long cycle of 28 years to 2,087 hours, the divisor federal agencies apply to annual salaries.
The gap matters mostly for people paid a salary who want to compare offers by the hour, or for budgets built on a monthly figure. For a weekly or biweekly paycheck it changes nothing, because each check pays the hours of its own weeks. The working days calculator counts any month of 2026 if you need the exact number for a period.
Compressed and part-time schedules
Four tens, three twelves and the nine-day fortnight all aim at the same number of hours in fewer days. Under federal law the workweek total is what counts, so four ten-hour days at $24 an hour pay $960.00, exactly the same as five eights. Moving that schedule to a state that measures each day can change the paycheck. Alaska, for example, counts overtime after 8 hours in a day for employers of 4 or more workers, so the same week there would contain 8 overtime hours and pay $1,056.00, unless an approved flexible schedule raises the daily threshold to 10 hours (Alaska Wage and Hour Act). California, Nevada and Colorado have their own daily limits, compared in the daily overtime guide.
For part-time work, the arithmetic is the same and only the inputs shrink. Three five-hour shifts make 15 hours a week and 780 a year. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act does not draw a line between part-time and full-time, so whether a schedule qualifies for health insurance or paid leave depends on the employer's plan or on other laws, not on this calculator.