Overtime pay = regular rate × 1.5 × overtime hours. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), most employees are owed at least time and a half their regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. At $17.00 an hour for 44 hours, that is $680.00 for the first 40 plus $102.00 for the last 4, or $782.00. Try your own numbers in the overtime calculator.
The basic formula
Regular pay is the first 40 hours times your rate. Overtime pay is each hour beyond 40 times one and a half times the rate. Maria earns $17.00 an hour and works 44 hours. Her overtime rate is $17.00 × 1.5 = $25.50. Her overtime pay is 4 × $25.50 = $102.00, her regular pay is 40 × $17.00 = $680.00, and her total is $782.00. The time and a half calculator gives the overtime rate for any wage.
Overtime is counted by the workweek
The Department of Labor says the act applies on a workweek basis: a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, seven consecutive 24-hour periods. The workweek does not have to match the calendar week and can start on any day and hour. Hours are not averaged over two or more weeks (U.S. Department of Labor, Overtime Pay).
So a two-week pay period of 80 hours is not automatically free of overtime. At $20.00 an hour, 45 hours in week one and 35 in week two pay $950.00 + $700.00 = $1,650.00, because the 5 hours over 40 in week one are overtime. Treating it as 80 hours at straight time would pay $1,600.00, which is $50.00 short. The biweekly timesheet calculator splits each week for you.
What the "regular rate" is
The regular rate is not always your base hourly wage. The Department of Labor's formula is: total compensation in the workweek (except for the statutory exclusions) ÷ total hours worked in the workweek = regular rate (DOL Fact Sheet #56A, Regular Rate of Pay). The regular rate includes "all remuneration for employment," so extra pay tied to your hours, production or performance goes into it. That includes:
- Non-discretionary bonuses, such as one promised in advance for production, attendance or meeting a target.
- Commissions, and piece-rate earnings.
- Shift differentials and other wage supplements, even when they are not directly tied to performance.
The law lists what can be left out, and the fact sheet says the list is exhaustive. It includes:
- Gifts on special occasions, when the amount is not measured by hours, production or efficiency.
- Pay for occasional periods when no work is performed: vacation, holiday, sick leave and other paid time off.
- Reimbursement of business expenses.
- Discretionary bonuses, but only if both the fact of the payment and its amount are at the employer's sole discretion at or near the end of the period, and it is not made under a prior promise or agreement. The label does not decide it.
- Payments under a bona fide profit-sharing plan, and employer contributions to bona fide benefit plans.
- Premium pay for hours over 8 in a day or over 40 in a week, and premium pay of at least 1.5× for work on weekends, holidays or regular days of rest. These can also be credited toward overtime owed.
Whether a particular payment may be excluded is decided case by case, and there are more exclusions and conditions than fit here. The fact sheet and 29 CFR 778.200 to 778.225 have the details.
Example: a weekly bonus raises the regular rate
Jamal earns $20.00 an hour, works 45 hours and earns a $90.00 weekly production bonus that was promised in advance.
- Straight-time earnings: 45 × $20.00 = $900.00, plus the $90.00 bonus = $990.00.
- Regular rate: $990.00 ÷ 45 hours = $22.00 an hour.
- Every hour is already paid at straight time, so overtime adds only the extra half: $22.00 × 0.5 × 5 overtime hours = $55.00.
- Total pay: $990.00 + $55.00 = $1,045.00.
Using only the $20.00 base wage would have given $1,040.00, $5.00 less. Adding the extra half is the same as paying 40 hours at straight time and the rest at 1.5 times the rate when nothing but the wage is involved. The regulation on bonuses (29 CFR 778.209) says the same method applies when the bonus covers one workweek: it is added to the other earnings, and the total divided by the hours worked. A bonus paid over a longer period has to be spread back over the weeks it was earned, so more overtime may be owed later.
Regular rate and overtime tool
Enter a base wage, the hours worked in one workweek and any extra pay that belongs in the regular rate. Leave the extra pay at zero for a plain hourly week.
Such as a non-discretionary bonus, commissions or shift differentials, in total for the week.
All figures are before tax. This tool assumes every hour is paid at straight time and the workweek's overtime threshold is 40 hours; it does not apply state daily overtime.
Two rates in the same week
If an employee works at two or more kinds of work with different rates in one workweek, the regular rate for that week is the weighted average: total earnings from all the rates divided by total hours worked at all jobs (29 CFR 778.115). Say you earn $18.00 for 30 hours of cashier work and $22.00 for 15 hours of stocking. Earnings are $540.00 + $330.00 = $870.00 for 45 hours, so the regular rate is $19.33. The extra half for 5 overtime hours is 5 × $19.33 × 0.5 = $48.33, and the total is $918.33. The regulation points to certain statutory exceptions that allow other methods of computing overtime in some cases (§§ 778.400 and 778.415 to 778.421), which we have not covered.
Salaried employees who are owed overtime
Some salaried workers are still owed overtime. For an employee paid only a weekly salary, the regular rate is the salary divided by the number of hours the salary is intended to compensate (29 CFR 778.113). The regulation's own example: a $350 salary understood to cover a 35-hour week is a regular rate of $10 an hour, and when the employee works overtime they get $10 for each of the first 40 hours and $15 for each hour after. Working 45 hours that week would pay $475: the $350 salary, plus 5 hours at $10 for hours 36 to 40, plus 5 hours at $15. A $375 salary for a 40-hour week is a regular rate of $9.38.
A salary that covers a period longer than a week is first turned into a weekly amount: multiply a monthly salary by 12 and divide by 52, or a semimonthly salary by 24 and divide by 52. A regular monthly salary of $1,560, or a semimonthly salary of $780, for 40 hours a week is a regular rate of $9 an hour. As another example, a $900 weekly salary for 40 hours is $22.50 an hour, and overtime is $33.75 for each hour over 40.
Who is exempt? Executive, administrative, professional, computer and outside sales employees can be exempt from overtime, but they must meet all the tests: a minimum salary level set by the Department of Labor, which has changed over the years, and a duties test. Job titles do not decide it. The exemptions do not apply to manual or "blue-collar" workers, however highly paid, or to police, fire fighters, paramedics and other first responders (DOL Fact Sheet #17A, Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Exemptions). Check the current salary level on dol.gov, since this page does not state one.
Federal overtime and California overtime
The federal rule is the floor. The FLSA sets overtime by the workweek, and the Department of Labor's overtime page notes that it does not require overtime pay for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays or regular days of rest unless overtime is worked on such days (U.S. Department of Labor, Overtime Pay). Employers must also follow any federal, state or local law that gives workers more, such as a lower maximum workweek (DOL Fact Sheet #17A). California is the state this page covers in detail. California Labor Code § 510(a) says:
- Overtime, 1.5× the regular rate: any work over 8 hours in one workday, any work over 40 hours in a workweek, and the first 8 hours worked on the seventh day of work in a workweek.
- Double time, 2× the regular rate: any work over 12 hours in one day, and any work over 8 hours on the seventh day of work in a workweek.
- Nothing in the section requires an employer to combine more than one rate of overtime compensation for the same hour.
- The section does not apply to overtime for employees working under an alternative workweek schedule adopted under Labor Code sections 511 or 514, or one to which the chapter does not apply under section 554. We have not read those sections, so ask the California Labor Commissioner's office if your employer uses such a schedule.
Here is what a single day pays at $20 an hour, in a week that stays under 40 hours, in California and under the federal rule alone:
| Hours in the day | Regular | 1.5× | 2× | California pay | Federal only |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | $160 | $160 |
| 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | $220 | $200 |
| 12 | 8 | 4 | 0 | $280 | $240 |
| 13 | 8 | 4 | 1 | $320 | $260 |
| 14 | 8 | 4 | 2 | $360 | $280 |
For a 13-hour day that is 8 × $20 + 4 × $30 + 1 × $40 = $320 in California, against 13 × $20 = $260 under the federal rule if the week stays under 40 hours. The time card calculator has a "daily 8/12 plus weekly 40" option that applies the daily and weekly rules without counting an hour twice. It does not apply the seventh-day rule, so check that separately. The statute says "seventh day of work in any one workweek," and how that is applied has conditions in other California laws that we have not covered here.
Other states. Some other states add their own daily or weekly overtime rules, and the Department of Labor publishes a state-by-state overtime guide that we did not use for this page. Your state labor department has the rule that applies to your job.
Quick checklist
- Count only hours worked in the workweek. See how to calculate hours worked.
- Find the regular rate, including non-discretionary bonuses, commissions and shift pay.
- Pay 1.5× that rate for hours over 40, or add the extra half if all hours were already paid at straight time.
- Apply any state daily overtime or double-time rules.
- Do the arithmetic for each workweek separately.
Sources and limits
The rules above come from U.S. Department of Labor, Overtime Pay, DOL Fact Sheet #56A, Regular Rate of Pay, DOL Fact Sheet #17A, Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Exemptions, the regulations 29 CFR 778.113, 29 CFR 778.115 and 29 CFR 778.209, and California Labor Code § 510, which we read on September 26, 2026. The Department of Labor's site does not allow automated readers, so we read its pages through copies from the Internet Archive taken in 2026; the regulations came from the government's eCFR site and the California statute from the Legislature's own site. The examples are ours, calculated with the same code as our calculators, except where we say an example is the regulation's own. The fact sheets are dated 2019 (regular rate and exemptions), and pay rules change. This is general information, not legal or payroll advice. If you think you have been underpaid, contact the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division or your state labor department.