Overtime and state rules · rules read October 11, 2026
Overtime calculator by day and by week
Enter the hours of each day of the workweek and your rate; the calculator splits them under the federal rule or your state’s.
Written by Radif Partners · How the hours are counted · Editorial policy
Overtime pay this week
$135.00
5.00 h at 1.5x · gross $855.00
| Total hours | 45.00 h |
| Regular hours | 40.00 h × $18.00 |
| Overtime hours | 5.00 h × $27.00 |
| Gross pay before taxes | $855.00 |
Overtime after 40 hours in the workweek (FLSA). Days are in workweek order. How this is calculated.
Overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act is owed for every hour past 40 in a workweek, at no less than 1.5 times the employee’s regular rate of pay. The workweek is a fixed period of 168 hours chosen by the employer, and the Department of Labor does not allow hours to be averaged across two weeks or require overtime just because a day is long, a weekend or a holiday. At $18 an hour, five nine-hour days come to 45 hours: 40 regular and 5 overtime, for $855.00 gross. States can only add to this floor. California pays overtime after 8 hours in a day, so the same week there holds 5 overtime hours and pays $855.00; Alaska and Nevada (below $18.00 an hour) also count after 8 hours a day, and Colorado after 12. The calculator applies whichever rule you choose, hour by hour.
Which hours become overtime, step by step
The calculator follows the order a payroll department uses when a state has a daily rule. It looks at each day first: in California, the hours past 8 up to 12 are time and a half and the hours past 12 are double time; in Alaska and Nevada the hours past 8 are time and a half; in Colorado the hours past 12. Then it walks through the week in order and counts only the hours still paid at straight time. Once those reach 40, every further straight-time hour becomes overtime. An hour is never paid twice, which is also how Colorado's COMPS Order #40 words it: whichever calculation gives the greater payment applies.
Under the federal rule alone there is no daily step. A week of 52 hours made of four ten-hour days and one twelve-hour day at $22 gives 40 regular hours and 12 overtime hours, $1,276.00 before taxes. The twelve-hour Friday is not special in Texas, Florida or New York; it is special in California, where it would add double time.
One long day in California: how the hours split
Pay for the day
$225.00
| Regular | 8.00 h |
| Overtime 1.5x | 3.00 h |
| Double time 2x | 0.00 h |
Same day under the federal rule alone: $198.00, no overtime until 40 hours in the week.
The regular rate is not always the hourly wage
Time and a half means one and a half times the regular rate, and the Department of Labor defines that rate broadly: all pay for employment except the exclusions listed in the Act. A night-shift differential of $1.50 an hour, a weekly attendance bonus or a piece-rate payment all raise it. When two jobs at two rates are worked in one week for the same employer, the regular rate is their weighted average under 29 CFR 778.115; the regular rate calculator handles that case, and the salaried overtime page covers nonexempt workers paid a weekly salary.
The quick check for a pay stub is therefore not "overtime hours × 1.5 × base wage" but "is the overtime line at least half the regular rate on top of straight time for every hour past 40". When a bonus is paid later for a period of several weeks, it has to be spread back over those weeks and extra overtime paid on the weeks that had overtime.
Weekly totals do not carry over
A frequent misunderstanding comes from biweekly paychecks. Eighty hours in two weeks look like two normal weeks, but if the split was 50 and 30, the first week contains 10 overtime hours. The FLSA measures each workweek on its own and forbids averaging. The two-week timesheet splits the overtime week by week for that reason, and the biweekly pay calculator shows the paycheck that results.
Another one comes from the start of the workweek. Your employer picks it, and it may start on a Wednesday at 6 pm if that is the fixed, recurring period. A double shift on Sunday can fall in one workweek or the next depending on that choice, and the overtime follows the workweek, not the calendar week printed on the schedule.
Who the federal rule does not cover
Overtime is owed to nonexempt employees. Executives, administrators and professionals can be exempt if they meet a duties test and are paid a salary of at least $684 a week (DOL salary levels); some occupations have their own exemptions. Being paid a salary is not enough on its own: a salaried assistant earning $650 a week is owed overtime. The exempt versus nonexempt guide explains the tests, and the state pages explain where California and Colorado set higher floors.