Convert leave between days and hours, for full-time and part-time schedules.
Hours = days × hours per workday.
Days = hours ÷ hours per workday.
An employee on 8-hour days requests 3.5 days off: 28 hours. Another on 10-hour shifts has 30 hours left, which is 3 of their workdays.
Policies are often written in days but tracked in hours, especially when people work different shift lengths. Converting with the employee’s own workday keeps it fair.
For part-time staff, use their usual scheduled day, or follow how your policy defines a day.
An office employee works 7.5-hour days and asks for a day and a half off. Enter 1.5 days and 7.5 hours per workday: the request uses 11.25 hours. Her remaining balance of 22.5 hours converts to 3.00 of her workdays.
Days and hours convert at one fixed workday length, so the result is exact only for someone whose days are all the same length. For rotating or mixed schedules, convert each requested day using the hours scheduled that day. Results show two decimal places, so a value like a third of a day is rounded.
| Days requested | 7.5-hour day | 8-hour day | 10-hour day | 12-hour shift |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5 | 3.75 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 1 | 7.5 | 8 | 10 | 12 |
| 2.5 | 18.75 | 20 | 25 | 30 |
| 5 | 37.5 | 40 | 50 | 60 |
Five days for someone on 12-hour shifts is 60 hours, more than a normal week, because a 12-hour worker usually has only three or four shifts a week. Convert the days they would actually have been scheduled.
Leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act is 12 workweeks, and the regulations in 29 CFR 825.205 measure intermittent or reduced-schedule leave in hours based on the employee’s normal workweek. Someone on a 40-hour week, whether five 8-hour days or four 10-hour days, has 480 hours of FMLA leave. A part-time employee who normally works 24 hours a week has 12 × 24 = 288 hours. Employers must track intermittent leave in the smallest increment their payroll system uses for other absences, as long as it is no more than one hour.
A fictional employee has a balance of 40 hours, which was five 8-hour days. On July 1 they move to four 10-hour days. The balance stays at 40 hours, but it now covers four workdays, not five. Tell the employee on the day of the change, so the drop in “days” does not look like lost leave.
Use the hours scheduled on the days requested.
No, use the employee’s own workday.
Use their usual scheduled day or your policy’s definition.
Yes, many systems track in hours.
Multiply the scheduled workdays in that week by the workday hours. Someone on four 10-hour days who takes a week off uses 4 days, or 40 hours, not 5 days.
Use paid hours. An 8.5-hour shift with a 30-minute unpaid lunch is an 8-hour day for leave purposes, so enter 8.
Half of the scheduled shift, which is 5 hours, unless your policy defines a half day differently.
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Set overtime thresholds and weekly hour limits in EZTime and managers get an alert while there is still time to change the schedule. Book a demo if you want a walkthrough.