Overtime Calculator

Calculating overtime gets tricky once you cross daily thresholds, double-time rules, and state-specific laws — California in particular has different rules than federal FLSA.

Enter your regular hourly rate, hours worked, and which rules apply (federal, California, or custom thresholds). The calculator splits hours into regular, time-and-a-half, and double-time buckets, then totals what you should be paid. It handles the daily-vs-weekly threshold split, so a 14-hour California day pays differently than two 7-hour days summing to the same total.

The most common mistake employers make (intentionally or not) is treating bonuses as outside the regular rate. Under federal law, non-discretionary bonuses must be included in the regular rate when computing overtime. The calculator has a field for that, and the difference can be meaningful when bonus pay is significant.

The calculation walks through hours in chronological order. Federal: anything over 40 in a workweek goes to time-and-a-half (1.5× regular rate). California layers on daily rules: anything over 8 in a single day at 1.5×, anything over 12 in a single day at 2×, and the seventh consecutive day in a workweek triggers 1.5× for the first 8 hours and 2× beyond. The daily and weekly rules don't double-count — you take the higher of the two for any given hour. Custom rule sets handle states like Alaska, Nevada, Colorado, and various Canadian provinces that have their own daily-overtime thresholds.

The pain this addresses: hourly workers who don't trust the paycheck math their employer is doing. Wage theft is real — a 2017 study by the Economic Policy Institute estimated $15 billion annually in stolen overtime in the US alone. Most of it isn't malicious; it's payroll software configured for the wrong jurisdiction or a manager who 'rounded' hours. Knowing what your check should say lets you spot the discrepancy and ask. Sometimes it's an honest error fixable by HR. Sometimes it's a pattern that needs the labor board.

Worked example: California, 50-hour workweek across five 10-hour days at $20/hour base. Each day: 8 hours regular + 2 hours at 1.5× = $160 + $60 = $220/day. Five days: $1,100. Federal-only would compute differently: 40 hours × $20 + 10 hours × $30 = $800 + $300 = $1,100. Same total in this case because California's daily rules and the federal weekly rule align. Now try seven consecutive 10-hour days: California pays the seventh day's first 8 hours at 1.5× and hours 9-10 at 2×. Federal still just sees it as 70 hours, with 30 hours at 1.5×. California pays more.

Where this can mislead: bonuses and commissions. Under FLSA, non-discretionary bonuses (production bonuses, attendance incentives, profit-sharing per a fixed formula) must be included in the regular rate when computing overtime. Many employers don't do this correctly. If you got a $500 quarterly attendance bonus and worked overtime that quarter, the bonus needs to be allocated across the quarter's hours and the overtime portion needs the bonus-included rate applied. The math is annoying; the calculator handles it; payroll software often doesn't.