Overtime Calculator

How to use the overtime calculator

Enter the hours worked on each of the seven days, the base hourly wage, any shift differential paid per hour, and any nondiscretionary bonus allocated to the workweek. The calculator first splits the hours into regular, time-and-a-half, and double-time buckets under the selected preset. It then builds the regular rate and prices every bucket from that rate.

The workweek matters before the arithmetic begins. Federal law ordinarily requires at least time and one-half after 40 hours in one fixed recurring 168-hour period, and it supplies no general daily trigger. A 45-hour week followed by a 35-hour week therefore produces 5 overtime hours in the first and zero in the second; a biweekly total of 80 cannot average them away.

The phrase “time and a half” hides the page’s most important input. Section 207(e) starts with all remuneration for employment and then lists exclusions. Section 778.109 divides non-excluded remuneration by the hours actually worked for which it was paid. A production, attendance, quality, or promised retention bonus is commonly included; a genuine discretionary payment must satisfy the legal conditions, not merely carry that name in payroll.

Shift differentials also matter. The federal regulations treat night-shift differentials and premiums for hazardous, arduous, or dirty work as remuneration included in the regular rate unless another statutory exclusion applies. Enter the differential as an hourly addition. The engine adds it to the base wage for every worked minute before adding the weekly bonus and dividing by total hours.

State rules add another layer without replacing the federal floor. California assigns time-and-a-half after 8 through 12 workday hours, double time after 12, and seventh-day premiums. Alaska generally starts daily overtime after 8. Colorado uses 12 workday hours and 12 consecutive hours, whichever pays more. Nevada’s 8-hour rule is limited to employees below 1.5 times the applicable minimum wage.

Why the regular rate can exceed the wage

An hourly wage and a regular rate are identical only when the wage is the employee’s entire includable remuneration for the workweek. Add a $2.00 hourly shift differential to a $22.00 wage and the engine returns a $24.00 regular rate. Add a $100 weekly bonus as well across 45 hours and the displayed rate becomes $26.22.

The divisor must match the compensation. The engine uses total hours worked in the workweek because its bonus input is expressly a weekly nondiscretionary bonus. A bonus earned over several weeks may require allocation back across those weeks under more detailed federal rules, and this page does not perform that allocation. Enter only the amount properly assigned to the week being calculated.

Some payments are excluded by statute, including qualifying expense reimbursements, true overtime premiums, certain gifts, and pay for occasional periods when no work is performed. The exclusion analysis is fact-specific. The calculator provides inputs for the common included items it can model, not a legal classification engine for every payment appearing on a wage statement.

How daily and weekly overtime avoid pyramiding

Where a state requires daily overtime, the engine assigns those hours first. It then tests only hours still carrying straight time against the weekly threshold. This represents the crediting of qualifying daily premium compensation toward federal weekly overtime and prevents one hour from receiving the same time-and-a-half premium twice merely because it crosses both boundaries.

Consider five 10-hour days under the California preset. Each day contributes 8 regular hours and 2 daily overtime hours, producing 40 regular and 10 overtime hours. The weekly test sees exactly 40 remaining straight-time hours, so the engine leaves the premium bucket at 10 rather than adding another 10 for the 50-hour total.

No-pyramiding does not mean ignoring the more protective rule. Oregon manufacturing and covered cannery employers generally compare the daily and weekly calculation and pay the greater amount. Colorado also requires a manual comparison when 12 consecutive hours cross the defined workday, because the preset can test daily rows but cannot infer the employer’s workday boundary from hours alone.

The formula, worked line by line

The hour split and the pay rate are separate calculations. The federal preset places the first 2,400 minutes in the regular bucket and any remaining minutes in overtime. State presets can first assign daily time-and-a-half or double-time minutes, then offer only the remaining straight-time minutes to the weekly threshold.

The regular-rate numerator is straight-time compensation at the base wage plus the shift differential for every worked minute, followed by the nondiscretionary bonus entered for the week. Dividing that numerator by total worked hours produces an hourly regular rate. The interface rounds that rate to cents before payCents applies exact 3-to-2 or 2-to-1 multipliers.

This model is deliberately narrower than a payroll system. It assumes one base rate, one differential applying to all entered hours, and one bonus already allocated to the workweek. Commissions, piece rates, bonuses covering multiple weeks, salary arrangements, tip credits, and specialized exemptions require additional rules that the inputs cannot represent reliably.

regular-rate numerator = worked hours × (base wage + differential) + weekly nondiscretionary bonus
regular rate = numerator ÷ total hours the remuneration covers
federal overtime hours = max(0, total worked hours − 40)
overtime bucket pay = overtime hours × rounded regular rate × 3/2
double-time bucket pay = double-time hours × rounded regular rate × 2/1

The calculation does not prove that a payment is nondiscretionary. It shows the consequence after that classification is made. Section 778.211 requires discretion over both the fact and amount of payment near the period’s end, without an earlier agreement or promise. A recurring formula bonus promised in advance normally fails that test even when a wage statement labels it discretionary.

Treat the result as an estimate and not legal advice. Coverage and exemption status come first, while state law can add daily or consecutive-hour premiums and plan documents can promise more than the statutory floor. If the result affects a wage claim or payroll correction, retain the pay plan, time records, bonus terms, and the employer’s established workweek for a qualified reviewer.

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