Overtime Pay Calculator

How to calculate overtime pay

Overtime pay has four moving parts: the regular rate, the multiplier, the hours paid at the plain rate, and the hours paid at the multiplied rate. Get those four right and the arithmetic is short.

Step 1 — Find the regular rate

The regular rate is what one hour of ordinary work is worth. For a straight hourly job it is the hourly wage. It gets higher when pay includes non-discretionary bonuses, shift differentials, commissions or piece-rate earnings: under federal rules those amounts are added into total earnings for the workweek and divided by the hours worked, so the regular rate — and every overtime hour built on it — rises above the base wage. The U.S. Department of Labor explains what counts in Fact Sheet #56A: Overtime Pay Requirements — the Regular Rate. If your pay includes items like those, work out the regular rate first and type that number into the rate field instead of your base wage.

Step 2 — Split the hours

Decide which hours are overtime hours under the rule that applies to you, and treat the rest as regular hours. The federal baseline counts hours worked past 40 in a single fixed workweek; other rules can count hours past 8 in a day. Enter hours as decimals: 7 hours 30 minutes is 7.5, and 7 hours 20 minutes is about 7.33. The time to decimal calculator and the minutes to decimal chart do that conversion, and the time card calculator builds the split from clock-in and clock-out times.

Step 3 — Apply the formulas

Some payroll systems write overtime a second way: pay every hour at the plain rate, then add a premium of 0.5 × rate on each overtime hour for time and a half. It reaches the same gross total. With a $24.00 rate and 8 overtime hours, 8 × $36.00 = $288.00 is the same money as 8 × $24.00 = $192.00 plus a premium of 8 × $12.00 = $96.00. The premium view matters mainly when something is calculated on the premium alone, which is how the no tax on overtime calculator works.

Each money line here is rounded to the nearest cent, and the gross total is the sum of those rounded lines, so the breakdown always adds up to the number shown. Every figure is gross pay, before tax, FICA, benefits or any other withholding.

Worked example

A machine operator earns $24.00 an hour. In one workweek they work 48 hours, and their employer treats hours past 40 as overtime at time and a half.

Those 8 overtime hours are worth $288.00 instead of the $192.00 they would earn at the plain rate — a $96.00 premium. The calculator above loads this example, so you can change one field at a time and watch which line moves.

Federal baseline, state rules, and who is covered

The three tiers below decide which hours you should type into the overtime field. This page does the arithmetic; it cannot tell you which tier applies to your job.

The federal 40-hour workweek

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, covered non-exempt employees must receive at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. A workweek is a fixed, recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour days — and it does not have to start on a Monday or line up with your pay period. Each workweek stands on its own: hours cannot be averaged across two weeks of a biweekly period to avoid overtime. There is no federal requirement for extra pay simply for working nights, weekends or holidays, and no federal daily overtime rule.

State and daily overtime

States may set rules that are more generous than the federal floor, and where both apply the employee gets the more favorable one. Common variations are daily overtime past a set number of hours in one day, a higher multiplier such as double time past a longer day, and pay rules for the seventh consecutive day worked. Some states also have their own thresholds for who counts as exempt. Because these vary by state and change over time, check your state labor agency for the current rule, then enter those hours and that multiplier here.

Exempt and non-covered work

Overtime rules do not reach everyone. Employees who meet the federal tests for executive, administrative, professional, outside sales or certain computer roles — which look at duties and, for most of them, a salary basis and salary level — are exempt from the overtime requirement. Job titles alone do not settle it, and neither does being paid a salary. Independent contractors are outside the FLSA entirely, and specific industries have their own overtime provisions. If overtime is optional or contractual for your role, use the multiplier your agreement states.

Common questions

How do I calculate overtime pay for $20 an hour?

At time and a half the overtime rate is $20.00 × 1.5 = $30.00 an hour. Ten overtime hours come to $300.00, which is added to your regular pay for the period.

My pay period is two weeks. What do I enter?

Enter the totals for the whole period, but work out the overtime split week by week first. Federal overtime is measured per workweek, so 45 hours one week and 35 the next is 5 overtime hours — not zero, even though the 80-hour total looks ordinary. The time card calculator keeps the two weeks separate for you.

Can I enter 0 overtime hours?

Yes. Zero is a valid entry and the result then shows regular pay only, with the overtime line at $0.00. Blank fields and negative hours are rejected instead of being treated as zero.

Does this show take-home pay?

No. Every figure is gross pay before federal, state and local tax, FICA, insurance and other deductions. For a rough look at the federal overtime deduction, see the no tax on overtime calculator.

What if I work two different hourly rates?

Run each rate separately for its own regular pay, then handle overtime carefully: with multiple rates the federal regular rate is generally a weighted average of the week's earnings, not either rate on its own. Work that average out first and enter it as the rate.

Is anything I type sent to a server?

No. The math runs in your browser on this page. This site's scripts do not upload or deliberately store what you enter, including the pay period label, though your browser may restore form values according to its own settings.

Other calculators on this site

• Time and a Half CalculatorQuick 1.5× overtime pay, or split total weekly hours at a threshold.
• No Tax on Overtime CalculatorEstimate the eligible overtime premium deduction and rough tax effect.
• Time Card CalculatorTwo weeks of clock-in and clock-out times, breaks, and weekly overtime.
• Time to Decimal CalculatorTurn hours and minutes into decimal hours for a field or report that asks for them.
• Add Time CalculatorAdd up several hour-and-minute entries into one total.
• Decimal to Time CalculatorConvert decimal hours back into hours and minutes.
• Minutes to Decimal ChartPrintable 0–60 minute conversion table plus a single-value converter.