How to Calculate Overtime Pay: The 1.5× Formula, Worked Examples and the Averaging Trap

Your paycheck says 47 hours and a total that looks… plausible. But plausible is not the same as correct, and overtime is where plausible goes to die: one hour filed at the wrong rate, or a busy week averaged against a quiet one, quietly shaves real money off the check. This guide shows exactly how to calculate overtime pay — the 40-hour split, the 1.5× premium, and the effective rate that tells you what the week really paid — with our overtime pay calculator doing the arithmetic at each step. Every example is worked in full, so you can audit your own pay stub line by line.

How to Calculate Overtime Pay, Step by Step

1. Count the hours you actually worked in one workweek. A workweek is a fixed 7-day stretch your employer defines — it does not have to start on Monday, but it cannot drift from week to week. 2. Split the hours at 40. The first 40 are regular hours; everything above is overtime. Paid time off does not count toward the 40 under federal law — only hours actually worked. 3. Price the two piles separately. Regular pay is regular hours × your hourly rate. Overtime pay is overtime hours × hourly rate × 1.5. 4. Add them, then sanity-check with the effective rate. Total pay ÷ total hours gives your blended rate for the week; on a time-and-a-half week it should sit noticeably above your base rate. Run the same four numbers in the calculator — regular hours, overtime hours, rate and multiplier — and it returns the same breakdown plus the effective rate, which is the fastest way to catch a stub that priced an overtime hour at straight time.

Where the 1.5× Comes From: The FLSA 40-Hour Rule

The multiplier is not a courtesy — it is the Fair Labor Standards Act. The FLSA requires employers to pay non-exempt employees at least one and a half times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. Two words in that sentence do heavy lifting. “Non-exempt”: the rule covers most hourly workers and many salaried ones; exemption requires passing both a duties test and a salary test, and a job title alone never decides it. And “regular rate”: if you earn shift differentials or non-discretionary bonuses, the premium is calculated on a rate that includes them, not just your base wage. Some states raise the floor further — the daily rules are covered below — but no employer anywhere in the US can go below the federal weekly standard.

Worked Example: A 47-Hour Week at $18.50 an Hour

Dana works in a fulfillment center at $18.50 an hour. In the week before a holiday weekend she logs 47 hours, all in one workweek, at time-and-a-half. Step 1, split the hours: 40 regular, 7 overtime. Step 2, regular pay: 40 × $18.50 = $740.00. Step 3, overtime pay: 7 × $18.50 × 1.5 = $194.25 — notice the premium piece alone is 7 × $9.25 = $64.75 on top of straight-time pay for those hours. Step 4, total: $740.00 + $194.25 = $934.25. Her effective rate for the week is $934.25 ÷ 47 = $19.88 an hour — $1.38 above her base rate, which is exactly the signature of a correctly paid overtime week. If your own effective rate ever comes out equal to your base rate on a week past 40 hours, an overtime hour was paid at straight time.

Daily Overtime and Double Time: When the Day, Not the Week, Decides

Federal law only counts the week, but a few states also police the day. California and Alaska require overtime after 8 hours in a single day, and California adds double time — a 2× multiplier — after 12 hours in a day and after 8 hours on the seventh consecutive day of a workweek. A 14-hour California day at $20 an hour prices in three slices: 8 hours × $20 = $160, the next 4 × $30 = $120, and the last 2 × $40 = $80, for $360 total. The same 14 hours spread across a week in a weekly-rule state would cost far less, which is why a long shift is worth noticeably more in Sacramento than in most of the country. When the calculator asks for a multiplier, choose 2× for those double-time hours and run them as their own calculation.

Common Mistakes

Entering total hours as overtime hours. If you worked 47 hours, the overtime figure is 7, not 47 — the single most common calculator error, and it inflates the answer by hundreds of dollars. Averaging two weeks. A 46-hour week followed by a 34-hour week is not an 80-hour wash: each workweek stands alone, and the first week carries 6 overtime hours. Employers who average are breaking the FLSA, full stop. Assuming a salary kills overtime. Salaried and non-exempt is a real category — if the duties test fails, the premium is owed. Forgetting what the premium rides on. Differentials and non-discretionary bonuses belong in the regular rate; a premium computed on the base wage alone underpays. Expecting a special overtime tax. There is none — overtime is ordinary wages. If a big week seems taxed harder, that is payroll annualizing the check; our US salary tax estimator shows how the brackets actually apply. And if all this math has you rethinking your rate itself, the freelance hourly rate calculator works the problem from the salary side.

Frequently Asked Questions

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