The conversion
There are 60 minutes in an hour, so the whole conversion is one division or one multiplication:
The wrinkle is that "hours" comes in two formats. Clock style (h:mm) keeps the minutes as minutes: 137 minutes is 2:17. Decimal style turns the leftover minutes into a fraction of an hour: 137 minutes is 2.28 hours. Both describe the same amount of time, but timesheets, payroll software and spreadsheets almost always want the decimal version, because you can multiply it by an hourly rate. This converter shows both at once, and the hours to minutes mode runs the whole thing backwards.
The payroll decimal table
These are the conversions payroll clerks use daily, rounded to two decimal places where they do not come out exact:
- 5 min = 0.08 hours (rounded)
- 6 min = 0.10 hours (exact, one tenth)
- 10 min = 0.17 hours (rounded)
- 12 min = 0.20 hours (exact)
- 15 min = 0.25 hours (exact, quarter)
- 20 min = 0.33 hours (rounded)
- 30 min = 0.50 hours (exact, half)
- 40 min = 0.67 hours (rounded)
- 45 min = 0.75 hours (exact, three quarters)
- 50 min = 0.83 hours (rounded)
Notice that 6-minute steps convert exactly (each is a tenth of an hour), which is why some billing systems, including many law firms, log time in 6-minute units. Anything that is not a multiple of 3 minutes produces a recurring decimal, so agree with whoever reads your timesheet whether entries are rounded to two decimal places or logged to the nearest quarter hour before the sums start.
Worked examples
The 1.5 hours trap
Decimal hours look like clock time but are not, and the two get mixed up constantly. 1.5 hours is 1 hour 30 minutes, not 1 hour 50: the digits after the point are hundredths of an hour, not minutes. Read a decimal timesheet as if it were a clock and every entry inflates, which is exactly the kind of error that quietly overpays or underpays someone for months.
The mismatch exists because time is one of the last places we still count in base 60, a habit inherited from Babylonian astronomers, while money and spreadsheets work in base 10. Converting between the two is trivial but has to actually be done, and it is worth knowing your employer's rounding policy too: some round each shift to the nearest quarter hour, others to the nearest minute, and over a year the difference adds up. If you are converting a shift with a start time, an end time and a break, our hours calculator does that whole job in one go, and the hourly wage to salary converter turns the result into pay.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert minutes to decimal hours?
Divide the minutes by 60. So 45 minutes is 45 divided by 60, which is 0.75 hours, and 20 minutes is 0.33 hours once rounded to two decimal places. Decimal hours are what payroll systems and spreadsheets expect.
Is 1.5 hours the same as 1 hour 30 minutes?
Yes. The .5 means half of an hour, which is 30 minutes, not 50. Reading decimal hours as if the digits after the point were minutes is the most common mistake with timesheets, and it always overstates the time.
Why do payroll systems use decimal hours?
Because pay is hours multiplied by an hourly rate, and multiplication only works cleanly with a single decimal number. 7 hours 30 minutes at £12 an hour is 7.5 times 12, which is £90. Trying to multiply 7:30 as if it were a number gives nonsense, which is why timesheets ask you to convert first.
What is 100 minutes in hours?
100 minutes is 1 hour 40 minutes, because 100 is one lot of 60 plus 40 left over. As a decimal it is 100 divided by 60, which is about 1.67 hours.
How do I convert decimal hours back to minutes?
Multiply by 60. So 0.75 hours is 45 minutes, and 7.4 hours is 444 minutes, which is 7 hours 24 minutes. The hours to minutes mode above does this for you, and you can put the whole and fractional parts in either box.