Lesson 1: Income - Timesheet Basics

   Constructing Knowledge

Many employers use a computer spreadsheet or software program to keep track of their employees' hours and the pay that is owed at the end of the pay period.

Constructing and reading timesheets are an important skills. As an employee, you will want to be sure you are paid fairly for all the time you work. If you work any overtime hours, you need to be aware of those, too.

In order to calculate your expected pay, it is important to be able to convert hours and minutes into a decimal number.

EXAMPLE

  1. Change 3 hours and 45 minutes to time, in hours only, as a decimal number.
  2. Change 8.25 hours to time in hours and minutes.

Solution to a


Because 3 hours is already in hours, only the 45 minutes needs to be changed to hours.

One hour has 60 minutes, so 45 minutes is only part of one full hour.

\(\frac{45}{60}\) is the fraction of one hour that 45 minutes represents.

\(\begin{align} \text{decimal portion}&=\frac{45}{60} \\ \\ &=0.75 \\ \end{align}\)

3 hours and 45 minutes is 3.75 hours.

   Multimedia

A video describing converting time in decimal form to hours and minutes is provided.


Solution to b


8.25 hours means 8 hours and 0.25 of an hour. The 0.25 can be written as a fraction.

\(0.25=\frac{25}{100}\)

Now, set up a proportion to find the number of minutes that 0.25 represents of an hour. One hour has 60 minutes.

\(\begin{align} \frac{m}{60}&=\frac{25}{100} \\ \\ {\color{red}{\cancel{60}}}\times \frac{m}{\cancel{60}}&=\frac{25}{100}\times \color{red}{60} \\ \\ m&=\frac{25\times 60}{100} \\ \\ m&=15\,\text{minutes} \\ \end{align}\)

A time of 8.25 hours is the same as 8 hours and 15 minutes.


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