Overtime pay calculator and rules

Enter your shifts and an hourly rate to see regular hours, overtime hours, and gross pay. The examples below use the common U.S. weekly rule of time-and-a-half after 40 hours, plus a daily overtime walkthrough.

Hours worked

Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm, with a 30 minute lunch, is filled in. Change any cell. An end time on the next morning, such as 10pm to 6am, counts through midnight.

Day Start End Unpaid break (min)

Weekly overtime after (hours) Daily overtime after (hours) Hourly rate Overtime multiplier

Include a CSV

The hours you type here are used for this calculation and are not stored.

The usual weekly formula

Overtime hours = max(0, hours worked in the week − 40)
Overtime pay = overtime hours × hourly rate × 1.5
Gross pay = (regular hours × rate) + overtime pay

These figures are arithmetic examples of common published rules, not payroll, tax, or legal advice. Your contract, union rules, and local law can differ. Check with your employer or a qualified advisor for your situation.

Worked example: 50 hours at $20

Regular hours: 40 × $20 = $800
Overtime hours: 10 × $20 × 1.5 = $300
Gross pay: $1,100

If there were no overtime premium, 50 × $20 would be $1,000. The extra $100 is the half-time premium on those 10 hours.

Worked example: two weeks of 50 and 30 hours

Same $20 rate. Week 1 is 50 hours (10 overtime). Week 2 is 30 hours (no overtime).

Week	Hours	Regular pay	Overtime pay	Gross
Week 1	50	$800	$300	$1,100
Week 2	30	$600	$0	$600
Both weeks	80	$1,400	$300	$1,700

Averaging the two weeks as 40 hours each would wrongly pay 80 × $20 = $1,600 and miss $100. Enter each week as its own calculation so the 40-hour cutoff is applied once per week.

Daily overtime (for example, California)

Some states require overtime by the day as well as by the week. A commonly cited California pattern is 1.5× after 8 hours in a day and 2× after 12 hours in a day, with further rules on a seventh consecutive day. This calculator can apply a daily threshold you type; it does not encode every state's statute.

Example, for illustration only: 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. with a 30-minute unpaid lunch is 12 hours worked. If daily overtime starts after 8 hours and double time after 12:

Regular: 8 hours
Daily overtime at 1.5×: 4 hours (the 8-to-12 window)
Double time at 2×: 0 hours in this example, because the shift ended at exactly 12 hours. A 12.5-hour day would have 0.5 hours at 2×.

When you set a daily threshold here, those daily overtime hours are not counted again toward the weekly threshold, so no hour is paid twice.

Questions people ask

How is overtime pay calculated?

Under the usual U.S. federal rule, hours over 40 in a workweek are paid at no less than 1.5 times the regular rate. Overtime pay = overtime hours × hourly rate × 1.5. Regular pay is the first 40 hours × the hourly rate. Add them for gross pay.

Is overtime calculated per day or per week?

U.S. federal law uses the workweek, not the day: overtime after 40 hours in that week, and weeks cannot be averaged. Some states, including California, also have daily overtime. Use the daily overtime box in the calculator if that applies to you.

Can I average two weeks to avoid overtime?

Not under the usual federal rule. If you work 50 hours one week and 30 the next, you still have 10 overtime hours in the first week. The calculator treats the list you enter as one pay period, so enter each week separately when each week has its own cutoff.

What is the overtime multiplier?

Time-and-a-half is 1.5, which is the usual federal minimum for overtime hours. Some agreements pay double time (2.0) for certain hours. You can change the multiplier in the calculator.