Net hours
Net hours are the paid portion of a worker's shift, gross hours minus unpaid breaks. A worker who clocked 8 gross hours with a 30-minute unpaid lunch has 7.5 net hours.
Net hours are what gets paid. Most US labor contexts require a meal break for shifts longer than 5 or 6 hours, and that meal break is typically unpaid. Net hours subtract the break from the gross clocked time.
Some teams use "paid hours" or "working hours" interchangeably with net hours. All three refer to the same number: clocked time minus unpaid breaks.
Most digital time trackers record the break as a separate field (length in minutes) and report both gross and net hours so the payroll handoff is unambiguous.
See also
Related terms