Overtime Pay Calculator

Working extra hours should mean extra pay — and you should know exactly how much. This free overtime pay calculator takes your regular hours, overtime hours, hourly rate, and the overtime multiplier (1.5× time-and-a-half or 2× double time) and instantly breaks your paycheck into regular pay, overtime pay, and total weekly pay, plus your effective hourly rate across the whole week.

How to Use the Overtime Pay Calculator

Four fields, one click, full paycheck breakdown:

1. Enter your regular hours — the straight-time hours you worked this week (usually 40 for full-time schedules).
2. Enter your overtime hours — only the hours beyond the regular threshold, not your total hours.
3. Enter your hourly rate — your normal pay per hour, before any overtime premium.
4. Choose the overtime multiplier: 1.5× for standard time-and-a-half, or 2× for double-time situations. Press Calculate Overtime Pay — or just type, since the results update instantly as you edit any field.

The result shows your regular pay, your overtime pay, your total weekly pay, and your effective hourly rate — total pay divided by every hour worked. That last number is the honest one: it tells you what each hour of your week was really worth once the overtime premium is blended in.

The FLSA 40-Hour Rule

In the United States, overtime is not a company perk — it is federal law. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to pay non-exempt employees 1.5 times their regular rate for every hour worked beyond 40 in a workweek. A workweek is any fixed, recurring 7-day period — it does not have to match the calendar week — and overtime cannot be averaged across two weeks. If you work 44 hours one week and 36 the next, you are owed 4 hours of overtime for the first week, period.

The math itself is simple:

One wrinkle worth knowing: the law applies the 1.5× multiplier to your regular rate, not just your base hourly wage. If you earn shift differentials, non-discretionary bonuses, or piece-rate pay, those get blended into the regular rate first. This calculator uses a single hourly rate, which is exact for the common case of one flat wage.

Several states go further than the federal floor. California and Alaska require daily overtime after 8 hours in a day. California goes further still: double time after 12 hours in a single day, and after 8 hours on the seventh consecutive day of a workweek. That is what the 2× option in the calculator is for — pick it whenever your situation calls for double time, whether by state law, union contract, or company policy.

Exempt vs Non-Exempt Employees

The 40-hour rule only covers non-exempt employees. Whether you are exempt depends on what you actually do and how you are paid — not on your job title. To be exempt from overtime under federal law, a worker generally must satisfy a duties test (executive, administrative, professional, computer, or outside-sales responsibilities) and be paid on a salary basis of at least $684 per week ($35,568 per year). Many states set a higher salary threshold, including California, New York, Washington, and Colorado.

Two common misunderstandings cost workers real money. First, a salary alone does not make you exempt — a salaried employee who fails the duties test is non-exempt and is owed overtime like anyone else. Second, misclassification is widespread: calling someone a "manager" or an "independent contractor" does not change the legal test, which looks at actual duties and pay structure. If you are unsure which category you fall into, the US Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division publishes plain-language guidance, and many employment attorneys offer free initial consultations.

Worked Example

Maria is a non-exempt warehouse associate earning $22 per hour. This week she worked 40 regular hours plus 8 overtime hours at time-and-a-half. Here is her paycheck, line by line:

The overtime premium added $264 — a 30% boost over her regular weekly pay — and lifted her effective rate from $22.00 to $23.83 per hour. Try the same week with the 2× multiplier: overtime pay becomes 8 × $22 × 2 = $352, total pay $1,232, and the effective rate $25.67 per hour.

Overtime on a Biweekly Paycheck

Most people are paid every two weeks, but overtime is never calculated on the pay period — it is calculated on the workweek, and each workweek stands alone. The FLSA does not allow an employer to average a busy week against a quiet one, even when the two sit on the same paycheck. Work 46 hours in week one and 34 in week two and the average is a clean 40 — but you are still owed 6 hours of overtime for week one, because that week, by itself, crossed the threshold.

The averaging shortcut underpays this check by $60 — the entire overtime premium. The same per-week rule applies to semi-monthly and monthly pay periods: however long the check covers, split it back into its individual workweeks, run each week through the calculator above, and add the results.

Limitations

This calculator shows gross pay — what you earned before taxes, Social Security, Medicare, and any deductions like health insurance or 401(k) contributions. Your take-home pay will be lower. It assumes a single hourly rate; if you work at two different rates in one week, federal law requires a weighted-average regular rate, which this tool does not compute. It does not account for holiday pay, PTO payouts, or shift differentials, and company policies on rounding time or meal breaks vary. State and local laws can be stricter than the FLSA — always check your state's rules. Finally, this page explains general US overtime concepts; it is not legal advice, and for disputes about exemption status or unpaid overtime, consult your state's labor agency or an employment attorney.

Overtime maths decides what a growing team costs. If the growth is becoming a business of your own, the guide to coming up with a business name is the zero-cost first step — ideas in minutes, then the trademark and domain checks that make the name safe to print.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Tools