Overtime calculator

How to calculate overtime

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employees who are not exempt get at least one and a half times their regular rate for every hour over 40 in a workweek (US Department of Labor, overtime pay). Working it out takes four steps:

1. Add up the hours in the workweek. A workweek is a fixed, regularly recurring period of 168 hours, seven 24-hour days in a row. It can start on any day and at any hour, so it may not be Monday to Sunday.
2. Take the hours over 40. Those are overtime. Each workweek counts on its own: averaging hours over two or more weeks is not permitted.
3. Work out the overtime rate. Multiply the regular rate by 1.5. At $20 an hour, the OT rate is $30.
4. Add the two kinds of pay. Regular hours at the regular rate, plus overtime hours at the overtime rate.

The calculator starts with that example: 45 hours at $20 an hour. 40 × $20 = $800 and 5 × $30 = $150, so the week pays $950 before tax. Of the $150, $100 is ordinary pay for the five extra hours and $50 is the overtime premium, the “half” in time and a half.

How to calculate double time pay

Federal law does not require double time. It comes from state law or from a contract. California is one example. There, non-exempt employees get time and a half for hours over 8 in a workday (up to 12) and over 40 in a workweek, and for the first 8 hours on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek. They get double time for hours over 12 in a workday and over 8 on that seventh day (California Department of Industrial Relations, overtime).

The same hours can pay differently under the two sets of rules. At $20 an hour:

In the last week, federal law only sees 46 hours, 6 of them over 40. Under the California rules all 10 hours on day 7 are paid at a premium: 8 at time and a half and 2 at double time, so 36 × $20 + 8 × $30 + 2 × $40 = $1,040.

To use these rules, choose California and enter hours per day, with Day 1 as the first day of your employer’s workweek. The calculator applies the seventh-day rule only when all seven days have hours, and it counts each hour once: hours already counted as daily overtime or on the seventh day do not count again toward the weekly 40. It does not model alternative workweek schedules or other special cases.

The regular rate, in plain words

Overtime is one and a half times the regular rate, which is not always the hourly rate on your pay stub. The regular rate includes all pay for the work except a few kinds the law leaves out, such as discretionary bonuses, gifts on special occasions and true premiums for working Saturdays, Sundays or holidays. It can never be less than the minimum wage. If you are paid by salary, by the piece or by commission, the regular rate is the average hourly figure those earnings come to for the week, and if you work two jobs at different rates for the same employer, it is the weighted average of the two (US Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #23).

The calculator treats the hourly rate you enter as the regular rate. If your week included a production bonus, commission or a second rate, work out the regular rate first, or your real overtime rate may be higher than the one shown.

Who is exempt from overtime

The FLSA exempts bona fide executive, administrative, professional and outside sales employees, and some computer employees, from both minimum wage and overtime (US Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #17A). Job titles do not decide it: the actual duties and the pay both have to fit. Most exempt executive, administrative and professional employees must be paid a salary of at least $684 a week, the level the Department of Labor restored in May 2026 (news release). So a salary on its own does not make you exempt, and if you are not exempt, the overtime figures here apply to you.

State overtime rules vary

The FLSA is the floor. Where both federal and state overtime law apply, the employee is owed overtime under whichever standard is higher (US Department of Labor, FLSA questions). That is why California workers can earn daily overtime that federal law does not require. A union contract or company policy can also be more generous than either.

The FLSA does not require extra pay for weekend, night or holiday work as such, and it puts no limit on hours per day for employees 16 and older. For another state’s rules, choose Custom and set its thresholds and multipliers. The calculator does the arithmetic for the rules you pick; it is not legal advice, so check your state labor department if you are unsure. For clock-in and clock-out times rather than hours, the timesheet calculator adds up the week first.

Written and maintained by the DoneThat team. The examples match the calculator code, and the rules above were last checked against their sources on 3 November 2026.

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