Actual hours is the total number of labor hours worked by your staff in a given time. For example, if you have a staff of ten and each of them worked an average of 30 hours each week, actual hours total 300 hours per week (10 people x 30 hours).
Actual hours is what the bottom line number comes down to. Payroll, earned benefits, and overtime information all come from actual hours worked by your staff.
The concept of earned hours explores how many total hours should have been worked in a given time period based on actual sales. It's a backwards-looking metric that retroactively determines the number of labor hours that were actually needed to justify revenue earned in that time.
These numbers are important to measure because they make smarter scheduling decisions possible. In turn, helping employees stay efficient and keeping labor costs lower.