Overtime and state rules · rules read October 11, 2026
Time and a half: from your hourly wage to the overtime rate
Type your hourly wage and the overtime hours; the calculator multiplies the regular rate and adds the premium to straight time.
Written by Radif Partners · How the hours are counted · Editorial policy
Time-and-a-half rate
$27.00
per hour, 1.5x of $18.00
| Premium part of each hour | $9.00 |
| Pay for 5.00 h at 1.5x | $135.00 |
| Pay for 30.00 regular hours | $540.00 |
| Total gross pay | $675.00 |
The multiplier applies to the regular rate, which includes nondiscretionary bonuses and shift differentials (Fact Sheet #23). How this is calculated.
Time and a half is the federal overtime rate: 1.5 times the regular rate of pay for every hour worked past 40 in a workweek, under section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The multiplier applies to the regular rate, which is broader than the posted wage, since nondiscretionary bonuses, shift differentials and commissions earned that week are part of it. At $20 an hour, an overtime hour is worth $30.00; at the federal minimum of $7.25 it is $10.88. A week of four ten-hour days plus an eight-hour Friday at $21 adds up to 48 hours, so 8 of them are paid at $31.50 and the check before taxes reaches $1,092.00. Add a $92 production bonus to a 46-hour week at $20 and the regular rate climbs to $22.00, which moves the overtime rate to $33.00.
Time and a half with a weekly bonus
Gross for the week
$1,078.00
| Regular rate with the bonus | $22.00 |
| Overtime rate (1.5x regular rate) | $33.00 |
| Overtime rate on the wage alone | $30.00 |
| Overtime hours | 6.00 |
The rate table: straight time, overtime rate, premium
The table multiplies a range of common wages by 1.5. The third column is what one overtime hour pays in total; the fourth is the extra half alone, which is the amount many payroll systems print as the "OT premium" when they have already paid every hour at straight time. A worker who sees a premium line of $10.00 an hour on a $20 wage has not been shorted: the other $20 sits in the regular earnings line. The last column gives the value of five overtime hours, a common amount for someone who stays an extra hour each weekday.
| Hourly wage | Time and a half | Premium alone | Five overtime hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| $7.25 | $10.88 | $3.63 | $54.38 |
| $12.00 | $18.00 | $6.00 | $90.00 |
| $15.00 | $22.50 | $7.50 | $112.50 |
| $16.90 | $25.35 | $8.45 | $126.75 |
| $18.00 | $27.00 | $9.00 | $135.00 |
| $20.00 | $30.00 | $10.00 | $150.00 |
| $22.50 | $33.75 | $11.25 | $168.75 |
| $25.00 | $37.50 | $12.50 | $187.50 |
| $30.00 | $45.00 | $15.00 | $225.00 |
| $35.00 | $52.50 | $17.50 | $262.50 |
| $40.00 | $60.00 | $20.00 | $300.00 |
Two rows are legal floors rather than examples: $7.25 is the federal minimum wage, and $16.90 is the California minimum in force since January 1, 2026. Nobody covered by those laws can receive less than the matching overtime rate. For any other figure, the calculator above does the multiplication to the cent and splits a full week once you enter the total hours.
The multiplier never changes with seniority, industry or the size of the paycheck. What changes is the base it multiplies. Federal law sets it at the regular rate of pay, defined in section 7 of the FLSA as all remuneration for employment minus a closed list of exclusions. That is why the same $20 job can produce three different overtime rates in three different weeks.
Bonuses and differentials that lift the multiplier's base
The Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet #23 names the payments that stay inside the regular rate: shift differentials, nondiscretionary bonuses tied to attendance, production or quality, commissions and most pay for the work itself. A bonus announced in advance, like $92 for hitting a weekly target, is nondiscretionary because the worker expects it once the target is met. It is divided over every hour of the week, not just the overtime ones.
Take 46 hours at $20 with that $92 bonus. Straight time and bonus add up to $1,012.00, which divided by 46 hours gives a regular rate of $22.00. The 6 overtime hours each earn half of that again, $66.00 in all, and the week totals $1,078.00. A payroll that ignored the bonus would compute $1,072.00, short by $6.00. Small per week, the gap repeats in every overtime week of the year.
What stays outside: gifts at the employer's discretion, such as an unannounced holiday bonus, expense reimbursements, pay for vacation, holidays or sick days not worked, and premium pay that is itself already an overtime rate. Those amounts are paid, but they do not raise the base of the multiplier.
When the week holds two wages or a salary
A cashier who also covers the stockroom at a higher wage has two straight-time rates in one week. The regular rate is then their weighted average, and the overtime premium is half of that average for each hour past 40; the regular rate guide works the method through. A nonexempt employee on a fixed weekly salary has a regular rate that falls as hours rise, which the salaried overtime calculator handles. In California and the other daily-rule states, some of those overtime hours may come from long days rather than the weekly total: the overtime calculator splits a week day by day, and the double time page covers the hours paid at twice the rate.