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Minutes to Decimal Hours Conversion Chart for Payroll
Payroll runs on decimal hours, not minutes. This chart converts every minute from 0 to 59 into its decimal-hour value, rounded to two places the way most payroll systems store it. Bookmark it, or use the live decimal hours converter.
The conversion in one line
Decimal hours = minutes ÷ 60. That is the whole formula. Because an hour has 60 minutes, each minute is 1/60 of an hour, or about 0.0167. Thirty minutes is 30 ÷ 60 = 0.5 hours, and 45 minutes is 45 ÷ 60 = 0.75. For a full time, keep the whole hours and add the minute fraction: 7 hours 20 minutes is 7 + 20/60 = 7.33.
Full minutes-to-decimal chart (0–59)
Values are rounded to two decimal places. Ten minutes, for instance, is 0.1667 exactly and shows here as 0.17.
| Minutes | Decimal hours |
|---|---|
| 0 | 0.00 |
| 1 | 0.02 |
| 2 | 0.03 |
| 3 | 0.05 |
| 4 | 0.07 |
| 5 | 0.08 |
| 6 | 0.10 |
| 7 | 0.12 |
| 8 | 0.13 |
| 9 | 0.15 |
| 10 | 0.17 |
| 11 | 0.18 |
| 12 | 0.20 |
| 13 | 0.22 |
| 14 | 0.23 |
| 15 | 0.25 |
| 16 | 0.27 |
| 17 | 0.28 |
| 18 | 0.30 |
| 19 | 0.32 |
| 20 | 0.33 |
| 21 | 0.35 |
| 22 | 0.37 |
| 23 | 0.38 |
| 24 | 0.40 |
| 25 | 0.42 |
| 26 | 0.43 |
| 27 | 0.45 |
| 28 | 0.47 |
| 29 | 0.48 |
| 30 | 0.50 |
| 31 | 0.52 |
| 32 | 0.53 |
| 33 | 0.55 |
| 34 | 0.57 |
| 35 | 0.58 |
| 36 | 0.60 |
| 37 | 0.62 |
| 38 | 0.63 |
| 39 | 0.65 |
| 40 | 0.67 |
| 41 | 0.68 |
| 42 | 0.70 |
| 43 | 0.72 |
| 44 | 0.73 |
| 45 | 0.75 |
| 46 | 0.77 |
| 47 | 0.78 |
| 48 | 0.80 |
| 49 | 0.82 |
| 50 | 0.83 |
| 51 | 0.85 |
| 52 | 0.87 |
| 53 | 0.88 |
| 54 | 0.90 |
| 55 | 0.92 |
| 56 | 0.93 |
| 57 | 0.95 |
| 58 | 0.97 |
| 59 | 0.98 |
Why the decimals do not always look round
Only minutes that divide evenly into 60 give a tidy decimal. Fifteen, 30, and 45 land on 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75. Others, like 10 minutes (0.1667) or 25 minutes (0.4167), repeat forever and get rounded. This is normal, and it is why the chart uses two decimal places: that is the precision payroll systems typically keep. The tiny rounding on a single entry is fractions of a cent, and it evens out across a pay period.
Worked payroll example
Say an employee works 38 hours and 25 minutes in a week. Look up 25 minutes on the chart: 0.42. So the total is 38.42 decimal hours. At $16.50 per hour, gross pay is 38.42 × 16.50 = $634. If they had crossed 40 hours, only the hours above 40 would be paid at the overtime rate — see the guide on calculating employee hours for the full method.
Converting a full timesheet quickly
When you have a whole week to convert, do not convert each day and add the decimals — small roundings can drift. Instead, add up all the minutes first, then convert once at the end. Suppose the daily totals are 7:45, 8:10, 8:00, 7:30, and 6:20. Add the hours (7 + 8 + 8 + 7 + 6 = 36) and the minutes (45 + 10 + 0 + 30 + 20 = 105) separately. Then fold the minutes back into hours: 105 minutes is 1 hour 45 minutes, giving 37 hours 45 minutes. Look up 45 on the chart to get 0.75, so the week is 37.75 decimal hours. One conversion, no drift.
Quarter-hour quick reference
Most schedules land on quarter-hours, so these four values cover the majority of real timesheets. A quarter of an hour is 15 minutes, or 0.25; half an hour is 30 minutes, or 0.5; three-quarters is 45 minutes, or 0.75; and a full hour is 1.0. Any time that ends in :15, :30, or :45 converts instantly in your head — 6:15 is 6.25, 6:30 is 6.5, 6:45 is 6.75. Only the off-quarter minutes need the chart, and even then you can estimate: 20 minutes is a third of an hour, close to 0.33, and 40 minutes is two-thirds, close to 0.67.
Going the other way
To turn a decimal back into minutes, multiply the decimal part by 60. In 6.42 hours, 0.42 × 60 ≈ 25 minutes, so 6.42 is about 6:25. The decimal hours converter does this conversion in both directions as you type.
This chart is general reference information, not payroll, tax, or legal advice. Rounding conventions vary by employer and payroll system; confirm your figures against your official pay records.