Overtime Pay Calculator

The Fair Labor Standards Act sets the federal floor: non-exempt employees must earn at least 1.5 times their regular rate for every hour beyond 40 in a workweek. The formula is simple.

Overtime pay = hourly rate × 1.5 × overtime hours
Total weekly pay = (rate × regular hours) + (rate × 1.5 × overtime hours)

Worked example: at $22 per hour with 40 regular hours and 10 overtime hours, regular pay is $880, overtime pay is $330 (10 × $33), and the weekly total is $1,210. Spread over 50 hours, that is an effective rate of $24.20 per hour.

The workweek is a fixed, recurring 168-hour period your employer defines. Overtime is counted per workweek, not per pay period, so an employer can't average a 30-hour week against a 50-hour week to dodge overtime on the second one.

Overtime rights hinge on whether you're classified as exempt or non-exempt. Non-exempt employees (most hourly workers) must get overtime. Exempt employees don't, and the classic exemptions cover executive, administrative, and professional roles that pass two tests: a salary basis test (paid a fixed salary above a minimum threshold) and a duties test (the actual work involves management, independent judgment, or advanced knowledge).

A job title alone settles nothing. Calling someone an "assistant manager" doesn't make them exempt if they spend their shift running a register. Misclassification claims are one of the most common wage disputes, and back overtime can be recovered for up to two years (three if the violation was willful).

Federal law now includes a temporary deduction for overtime premium pay, in effect for tax years 2025 through 2028. Here's the plain-language version: the extra half-time portion of your overtime pay can be deducted from your federal taxable income, up to $12,500 per year for single filers and $25,000 for married couples filing jointly.

Only the premium counts. If your base rate is $22 and overtime pays $33, the deductible piece is the $11 premium per overtime hour, not the whole $33. The deduction phases out once modified adjusted gross income passes $150,000 ($300,000 for joint filers), and it applies to overtime required by the FLSA. You still pay Social Security and Medicare tax on all of it, and your employer still withholds normally: you claim the deduction when you file.

The premium card in the results above shows exactly how much of your pay is premium, so you can see what the deduction might cover for your schedule.

Some states go beyond the federal 40-hour rule. California is the big one: non-exempt employees there earn 1.5x pay after 8 hours in a single workday (and after 40 in a week), and 2x pay after 12 hours in a day. Work a seventh consecutive day in a workweek and the first 8 hours pay 1.5x, with 2x after that. Use the second-tier option above to model double-time hours.

Alaska and Nevada also have daily overtime after 8 hours in some situations, and Colorado triggers overtime after 12 hours in a day. If you work in one of these states, your paycheck can include overtime even in a week where you never crossed 40 total hours.