Time and a Half Calculator

What this calculator does

This calculator computes overtime pay under US Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) rules: time-and-a-half (1.5× regular rate) for hours over 40 in a single workweek, with an optional double-time (2× regular rate) toggle for California-style daily-OT thresholds. You enter your regular hourly rate and weekly hours worked; the tool returns the OT rate, the DT rate (if enabled), and your total gross weekly pay broken into regular + OT + DT components.

The math is plain arithmetic — no tax estimates, no withholding calculations, just gross pay before any deductions.

How overtime pay is calculated

Federal rule (FLSA): any non-exempt employee working over 40 hours in a single workweek is paid 1.5× their regular rate for the hours over 40. So if your rate is $20/hr and you worked 45 hours:

• Regular hours: 40 × $20 = $800
• OT hours: 5 × ($20 × 1.5) = 5 × $30 = $150
• Total weekly gross: $950

A 47.5-hour week at $25/hr:

• Regular hours: 40 × $25 = $1,000
• OT hours: 7.5 × $37.50 = $281.25
• Total: $1,281.25

The OT rate (1.5× regular) is displayed as its own number so you can verify the breakdown.

California daily overtime — the toggle

If your work state is California (or Alaska under some conditions), toggle on the daily overtime / double-time option. California rules:

• 1.5× for hours over 8 in a single day
• 2× (“double time”) for hours over 12 in a single day
• 2× for hours over 8 on the seventh consecutive day of a workweek
• 1.5× still applies for hours over 40 in a week if not already counted under daily rules

The calculator simplifies this by asking for your longest single day’s hours when DT is enabled. If that day exceeded 12 hours, the excess is treated as DT. For more complex day-by-day schedules, run the math manually using the daily rules above.

States with daily-OT rules: California (strictest), Alaska (over 8/day for some industries), Nevada (over 8/day for workers earning under 1.5× minimum wage), Colorado (over 12/day in retail), and a handful of others. Federal FLSA has no daily threshold — only weekly.

Exempt vs non-exempt — who actually gets OT

This is the key gate. The FLSA covers non-exempt employees only. Most US employers classify employees as:

• Hourly non-exempt — punch in/out, paid by the hour, entitled to OT. Retail, food service, manufacturing, healthcare technicians, customer service most often fall here.
• Salaried exempt — paid a fixed salary, not entitled to OT regardless of hours worked. Requires the employee to make at least $684/week ($35,568/year as of 2024 — this threshold has periodically been raised), AND to meet one of the duties tests (executive, administrative, professional, computer professional, outside sales).
• Salaried non-exempt — rare but legal. The employee gets a fixed salary AND OT for hours over 40, with the regular hourly rate computed from salary ÷ 40.

Employee misclassification (employer calling someone exempt when they fail the duties test) is a top-three source of DOL wage-and-hour enforcement actions. If you suspect misclassification, the DOL has a no-cost complaint process and your state’s labor department often has parallel rights.

Why your OT paycheck might look smaller in withholding

A common surprise: a heavy-OT paycheck shows a higher percentage withheld than your regular paychecks. This is a withholding artifact, not extra tax. The IRS withholding tables assume your current paycheck is representative of your annual income, so a paycheck of unusual size pushes the withholding into a higher bracket. You get this excess back at year-end if your actual annual income lands in a lower bracket overall. Real annual tax on overtime is identical to tax on regular wages — there is no separate “overtime tax.”

State tax adds further variance: states without income tax (TX, FL, WA, NV, TN, SD, WY, AK, NH) make the federal-only number close to your take-home. High-tax states (CA, NY, NJ, OR, HI) take an additional chunk.

What this calculator does NOT do

• It does not model exempt vs non-exempt classification — you have to know your status.
• It does not model state-specific weekly/daily rules beyond the California-style toggle.
• It does not account for piece-rate, commission, or fluctuating-workweek pay arrangements (which have specialized OT formulas).
• It computes gross wages only; deductions, taxes, and benefits contributions are separate.

For complex pay structures or disputed OT, consult the US DOL Wage and Hour Division (online and phone hotline, free) or a labor attorney.

Privacy

Every figure you enter stays in your browser. The math is plain arithmetic running locally on your device. No fetch calls, no analytics on your hourly rate or hours, no server logging.