Work Hours Calculator & Timesheet

How many hours is full time in Australia?

Full time is 38 ordinary hours a week. The National Employment Standards cap a full-time employee's weekly hours at 38 plus reasonable additional hours (Fair Work Act s 62), and modern awards define a full-time employee as one engaged for an average of 38 ordinary hours. Spread over five days that is 7.6 hours a day, which is where the "7.6-hour day" comes from. A year of full-time hours is 1976 hours (38 × 52).

The ABS uses a different line for statistics: anyone who usually works 35 hours or more a week, across all jobs, counts as full-time. So two part-time jobs can make you "full-time" in the Labour Force survey. In August 2026 the ABS counted about 10.2 million full-time and 4.6 million part-time employed people.

Whether additional hours are reasonable depends on your health and safety, family responsibilities, the needs of the business, whether you are paid overtime or a salary that covers it, the notice given and the usual pattern in your industry (s 62(3)). You can refuse hours that are unreasonable.

How many hours is part time?

Part time means fewer than 38 ordinary hours a week on a reasonably predictable roster. There is no legal minimum, though many awards require at least 3 or 4 hours per shift. Part-time employees get the same NES entitlements as full-timers, pro rata to their hours, so FTE (full-time equivalent) is simply your hours divided by 38:

Timesheet hours: start, finish and breaks

To count hours worked, subtract the start time from the finish time and take off unpaid breaks. Paid rest breaks (for example the 10-minute breaks in the Clerks Award) count as time worked; unpaid meal breaks do not. Common shifts:

Worked example: 8:30 to 5 with a half-hour lunch, five days

Each day is 8 hours 30 minutes on site less a 30-minute unpaid lunch, so 8h 00m. Over five days that is 40 hours: 38 ordinary hours and 2 hours over the full-time week. Whether those 2 hours are paid as overtime depends on your award. Many awards pay overtime for hours outside the ordinary span of hours or beyond the daily maximum, and some average the 38 hours over a roster cycle. Others build the extra time into a rostered day off (RDO).

An RDO arrangement is how an 8-hour day fits a 38-hour week: work 19 days of 8 hours (152 hours) and take the 20th day off, which is 38 × 4. Under the Clerks Award a 20-day cycle gives 12 RDOs a year, and up to 5 can be banked.

Convert minutes to decimal hours

Payroll uses decimal hours. Divide the minutes by 60: 7 hours 36 minutes is 7.6 hours, not 7.36.

Breaks and overtime under awards

Meal and rest breaks are not in the NES; they come from your award or agreement. The Clerks Award is typical of office work:

• More than 3 and up to 8 hours: one paid 10-minute rest break; more than 8 hours: two.
• More than 5 hours: an unpaid meal break of 30 to 60 minutes, taken within the first 5 hours. Working through it is paid at 200%.
• Maximum 10 ordinary hours a day, excluding the meal break.
• Overtime Monday to Saturday: 150% for the first 2 hours, 200% after; Sunday 200%; public holidays 250% (casuals 175%, 225%, 225% and 275%).
• Employees on an annual salary more than 25% above their award minimum may not be entitled to overtime or penalty rates under some award clauses.