Overtime calculator: how much is your overtime pay?

For most employees, federal law makes every hour worked over 40 in a workweek overtime, paid at no less than 1.5 times the regular rate. To work it out, multiply the first 40 hours by your hourly rate, multiply the hours over 40 by your rate × 1.5, and add the two. At $20 an hour, a 45-hour week is 40.00 h × $20.00 = $800.00 plus 5.00 h × $20.00 × 1.5 = $150.00, a total of $950.00.

Enter your hourly rate and each shift below. The calculator takes off unpaid breaks, applies the overtime rule you choose and shows every line of the sum, so you can check it against your pay stub.

How is a 45-hour week calculated?

Take Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM with no unpaid break, at $20 an hour under the federal rule. Each day is 9 hours, so the week is 45 hours:

The first 40 hours are regular time at $20.00. The 5 hours after the 40th are overtime at $20.00 × 1.5, which is $30.00 an hour. No single day here is overtime on its own: under the federal 40-hour rule, only the week’s total decides.

What is the federal overtime rule?

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek, at no less than one and a half times the regular rate of pay. The Department of Labor’s overtime page sets out the rule. Three details settle most questions:

• The workweek is fixed. It is a regularly recurring period of 168 hours – seven consecutive 24-hour periods. Your employer sets it, and it can start on any day.
• Weeks are not averaged. For most employees, overtime is counted week by week, even on a two-week pay period. 30 hours one week and 50 the next is 10 hours of overtime, although the pay period adds up to 80.
• There is no general daily overtime. A 12-hour day is not overtime federally on its own: only the hours over 40 in the week are overtime. Work on a weekend does not change the rate on its own either.

One exception changes the last two points. Hospitals and residential care facilities such as nursing homes may, by an agreement made before the work, use a 14-day period instead of the workweek, with overtime after 8 hours a day and after 80 hours in the 14 days (FLSA section 7(j)).

The rule covers non-exempt employees. Many salaried managers and professionals are exempt, and independent contractors are not employees under the FLSA.

Which overtime rule should I choose?

• Federal is the minimum the FLSA sets, and most states use the same 40-hour rule.
• California adds daily overtime and double time under Labor Code section 510. The California overtime calculator explains it with a 13-hour day.
• Custom weekly rule fits a contract or employer policy that pays more than the law, for example ×1.5 after 35 hours. If the FLSA covers you, hours over 40 still need at least ×1.5.
• No overtime fits hours that earn no overtime pay, such as a contractor’s.

What does this calculator not cover?

• The seventh-day rule. California pays overtime for the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek. The calculator does not apply it.
• A weighted-average regular rate. The calculator uses one hourly rate. Under the FLSA, if you work at two or more rates in a week, or earn some bonuses on top of the hourly rate, overtime is based on a weighted average of that pay.
• Hospital and nursing-home 8-and-80 schedules. The 14-day period under FLSA section 7(j), with overtime after 8 hours a day and after 80 hours in 14 days, is not built in.
• Other states. Only the federal and California rules are built in. Several other states set their own overtime rules, some of them daily; a custom weekly rule covers a different weekly threshold only.
• Shifts across the end of the week. Under the FLSA each workweek stands alone (29 CFR 778.104), so the hours of a shift that crosses the end of the workweek count in the week they were worked. The calculator puts the whole shift on the day it starts.
• The night the clocks change. Times are clock times without a time zone, so a shift that runs through a daylight saving change is off by one hour.

Calculations are estimates to help you check your pay. They are not legal, payroll or tax advice.

Can Hourio track my overtime every week?

Hourio is an iPhone app that runs this calculation for every pay period from the shifts you log, with the same rules and the same line-by-line breakdown. Weekly overtime is free in full: any threshold and multiplier, or none. Daily overtime, including the California preset, is part of Pro at $19.99 a year or $39.99 once. The pricing page lists what is free and what is Pro.