If you are hourly in the US, overtime follows one main rule: hours over 40 in a single workweek are paid at one and a half times your regular rate. Here is how overtime is calculated, with worked examples and the places people get it wrong. To skip the math, use the overtime calculator.
The federal rule
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets the floor. A covered, non-exempt employee earns overtime for every hour over 40 in a workweek. The overtime rate is at least 1.5 times the regular rate of pay. There is no federal limit on how many hours an adult can work in a week, and no federal overtime for weekends or holidays on their own. What matters is the count past 40.
A workweek is a fixed, recurring period of seven days in a row, 168 hours. Your employer picks when it starts. It can be Monday to Sunday, Sunday to Saturday, or any other seven days. It does not have to match the calendar week, and it does not change from week to week.
How to calculate overtime pay
Three steps.
- Find your overtime rate: regular rate × 1.5.
- Count your overtime hours: total hours in the workweek minus 40.
- Multiply the two, then add your regular pay.
Say you earn $20 an hour and worked 46 hours this week.
- Overtime rate: $20 × 1.5 = $30
- Overtime hours: 46 − 40 = 6
- Overtime pay: 6 × $30 = $180
- Regular pay: 40 × $20 = $800
- Gross pay for the week: $980
Another way to see it: all 46 hours at $20 is $920, plus a half-time premium of $10 on the 6 overtime hours, $60. Same $980.
Overtime is counted per week, not per paycheck
This is the one most people get wrong.
If you are paid every two weeks, your paycheck covers two workweeks. Each is figured on its own. Hours do not average across the two.
Take a biweekly period of 80 hours total: 50 hours in week one and 30 in week two. The period adds up to exactly 80, so it looks like there is no overtime. There is. Week one is 10 hours over 40, so you are owed 10 hours of overtime pay. Week two is just 30 regular hours.
The same goes for semi-monthly and monthly pay. The pay period never changes the rule; the workweek does the counting. Keep each week separate when you add up your hours. The hours calculator splits a two-week card by week for this reason.
What counts as the regular rate
The regular rate is not always the number on your offer letter. It includes most pay you earn for the week, divided by the hours you worked. Non-discretionary bonuses, shift differentials and commissions count toward it. Discretionary bonuses, gifts and expense reimbursements do not.
With a plain hourly rate and no extras, your regular rate is your hourly rate. If you get a $2 night differential on every hour, your regular rate for those hours is $2 higher, and so is your overtime rate.
Who gets overtime
The FLSA covers most hourly workers. Some employees are exempt, which means the overtime rule does not apply to them. The main exemptions are for executive, administrative and professional roles that are paid a salary above a federal threshold and whose duties meet certain tests. Being paid a salary by itself does not make someone exempt; the duties and the salary level both matter.
If you are salaried and non-exempt, you still earn overtime. Turn your salary into an hourly rate by dividing your weekly salary by the hours it is meant to cover, usually 40, and apply the same steps.
Daily overtime in some states
Some states go further than federal law. California is the best-known: it pays 1.5x after 8 hours in one workday and after 40 in a workweek, 2x after 12 hours in one day, and has extra rules for the seventh day worked in a row. Alaska, Nevada and Colorado also have daily overtime rules in some form. Other states follow the federal weekly rule only.
When state and federal rules differ, the one that pays the worker more applies. If you work in a state with daily overtime, a 10-hour day earns 2 hours of overtime even in a 38-hour week.
Double time
Double time is pay at 2x your rate. Federal law does not require it. Where it exists, it comes from state law, like California's after-12-hours rule, or from a union contract or company policy. If your employer pays it, the overtime calculator has a field for double-time hours.
A quick check for your paycheck
- Write down your hours for each workweek on the check, separately.
- For each week over 40, subtract 40 to get overtime hours.
- Multiply overtime hours by 1.5 times your rate.
- Add your regular pay. Compare to the gross on your stub.
If the numbers do not match, the most common reasons are a paid break counted as unpaid, hours averaged across two weeks, or a time card rounded in the wrong direction. Rebuild the week with the hours calculator, compare the totals, and ask payroll about the difference.