HoursHQ

What it is

HoursHQ is a set of free UK calculators for work, hours and pay, with guides explaining the rules behind them. Everything is free, there is no sign-up, and nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere. Every statutory figure comes from primary sources: legislation.gov.uk for the law itself, and GOV.UK, gov.scot, Acas or nidirect for current thresholds. The calculators show their workings step by step, and every rule links to the GOV.UK page or legislation it comes from with the date it was last checked.

Questions from the bench

Why was HoursHQ created?

HoursHQ was created because most UK pay and entitlement content online is out of date. The creator found that when checking statutory weekly pay caps across five sources on the first page of search results, four were wrong, including payroll providers and HR software companies. Some had figures two years stale.

Who writes HoursHQ?

Nathan Cole writes the guides on HoursHQ and checks every statutory figure against GOV.UK, Acas and the legislation itself before it goes live. He is a software developer, not a payroll professional or employment lawyer.

How are the figures checked for accuracy?

Every statutory figure comes from primary sources: legislation.gov.uk for the law itself, and GOV.UK, gov.scot, Acas or nidirect for current thresholds. The rules are stored as versioned data with source references and dates, never from another calculator site or summary of a summary.

What happens to information entered into the calculators?

Nothing is stored. What you enter is used to work out the answer for that request and is not written to the database or sent anywhere. If you share a result, the figures travel in the link itself.

How often are the figures updated?

Statutory rates change every April. The site sends one email when they do through an optional subscription, and nothing else. Every statutory figure was last checked against its source on 21 September 2026.