United States · Pay and hours

Overtime calculator

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, a covered, nonexempt employee must be paid at least time and a half of the regular rate for every hour worked over 40 in a workweek. This overtime pay calculator applies that federal rule exactly — including the part most quick calculators skip: a nondiscretionary bonus belongs in the regular rate, so it raises the overtime premium too. Enter your rate and your hours for one workweek.

The federal rule, precisely

The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division states the rule this way: an employee covered by the FLSA "must receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half his regular rate of pay". Three details in that sentence decide real paychecks. Workweek: the unit is a fixed, recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour days — which your employer sets and which does not have to match the calendar week. No averaging: hours cannot be averaged over two or more weeks, so a 30-hour week never cancels a 50-hour week; the 50-hour week carries 10 overtime hours. When it is due: overtime pay must be paid on the regular payday for the pay period in which it was earned. And one common assumption is simply wrong — the FLSA does not require overtime pay merely because work fell on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday; only hours past 40 in the workweek trigger it. The federal minimum wage floor underneath all of this is $7.25 an hour, and where a state law also applies, the higher of the two standards governs.

The regular rate is more than your hourly wage

"Time and a half" means one and a half times the regular rate, and the Wage and Hour Division's guidance (Fact Sheet 23) defines that rate as your total pay for the workweek divided by the total hours you actually worked. Total pay includes more than the hourly wage: nondiscretionary bonuses (promised production, attendance or similar bonuses), commissions and shift differentials all count, because the employer promised them in advance as part of the deal. Truly discretionary bonuses, gifts, expense reimbursements and payments for time not worked stay out. The arithmetic consequence: if you were already paid straight time for every hour, the additional premium owed is half the regular rate for each hour over 40 — which is exactly how the calculator presents it, showing straight-time pay and the overtime premium separately so you can compare it line by line with a pay stub. If your overtime was never paid at all, our back pay calculator adds up what a longer shortfall comes to.

States can require more: California's daily rule

Federal law is a floor, not a ceiling, and a few states build on top of it. California is the best-known example: its Division of Labor Standards Enforcement requires time and a half for hours over 8 in a single workday (up to 12), double time over 12 hours in a day, and premium rules for the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek — on top of the weekly 40-hour rule. California employees also cannot waive those rights. Most states follow the federal weekly pattern alone, which is why this calculator implements the federal rule and says so: if you work in California or another daily-overtime state, use your state's labour agency guidance as well, because your entitlement may be larger than the figure here.

A worked example with a bonus

An employee earns $25 an hour, works 50 hours in the workweek and receives a $100 nondiscretionary bonus for that week. Straight-time earnings are 50 × $25 + $100 = $1,350, so the regular rate is $1,350 ÷ 50 = $27 an hour — not $25. The 10 overtime hours were already paid at straight time inside that $1,350, so the premium still owed is half the regular rate: 0.5 × $27 × 10 = $135. Total pay for the week: $1,485. Run the same week without the bonus field and the total is $1,375 — the $10 difference in premium is precisely the part employers most often forget, and the part this calculator exists to catch.

New for 2025–2028: the overtime tax deduction

One recent change is worth knowing at tax time. For tax years beginning after 2024 and ending before 2029, the IRS's Publication 15 explains, individuals may deduct up to $12,500 of "qualified overtime compensation" — $25,000 for a married couple filing jointly. "Qualified" is narrow: it is only the premium above the regular rate — the "half" of time and a half — and only where the FLSA itself required the overtime. Overtime pay remains subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes as usual. The deduction changes your tax return, not your paycheck, and the premium figure this calculator shows is exactly the component the deduction is measured on.

Common questions

I am salaried. Can I still be owed overtime?

Yes. Overtime turns on whether you are nonexempt under the FLSA, not on whether you are paid a salary. If you are a nonexempt salaried employee, the salary mode above shows the standard method: the salary is spread over the hours actually worked to find the regular rate, and a half-rate premium is added for hours over 40. Converting salary to a rate is also what our salary to hourly calculator does for comparison purposes.

My employer averages my hours over the two-week pay period. Is that allowed?

For FLSA overtime, no — with narrow exceptions for certain public-sector and hospital schedules. Each workweek stands alone; a 50-hour week carries 10 overtime hours even if the next week is 30.

Does overtime have to be authorised in advance to be payable?

The premium follows hours actually worked that the employer knew or should have known about. An employer can discipline an employee for working unauthorised hours, but hours worked are hours owed — the Wage and Hour Division treats "suffered or permitted" work as payable time.

What if my pay stub shows overtime paid at exactly 1.5 × my hourly wage but I earn bonuses?

Then the stub is likely short. A nondiscretionary bonus raises the regular rate, and the premium is owed on the raised rate — the worked example above shows the size of the gap on one week.

Image credits

The wall clock photograph is by Julia Filirovska, via Pexels, Pexels License. The illuminated offices photograph is by Mike Kononov, via Wikimedia Commons, license CC0. The hourglasses photograph is by Wellcome Images (Wellcome Collection), via Wikimedia Commons, license CC BY 4.0. All three were already in this site's licensed collection; all were converted to WebP and resized. No image on this page was generated by AI.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division — Overtime (dol.gov/agencies/whd/overtime)
• U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division — FLSA overview (dol.gov/agencies/whd/flsa)
• California Department of Industrial Relations — Overtime FAQ (dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_overtime.htm)
• IRS Publication 15 (2026) — qualified overtime deduction, "What's New" (irs.gov/publications/p15)

The calculator implements the federal FLSA rule described on this page: straight-time earnings for the workweek (including any nondiscretionary bonus entered), divided by hours worked, with a half-rate premium for hours over 40. The Wage and Hour Division also publishes its own official Overtime Calculator Advisor on dol.gov. Expected outputs were derived independently of the code and the engine is tested against them.