Time and a Half Calculator

Time and a half has two steps. First the rate: regular hourly rate × 1.5. Then the pay: that rate × the overtime hours. For $24.50 an hour and 6 hours over 40 in the week:

1. Overtime rate: $24.50 × 1.5 = $36.75
2. Overtime pay: 6 × $36.75 = $220.50
3. Regular pay: 40 × $24.50 = $980.00
4. Gross for the week: $980.00 + $220.50 = $1,200.50

The same result can be reached as a premium: every overtime hour is paid once at the regular rate, inside the 46 × $24.50 = $1,127.00 of straight time, and then again at half the rate, 6 × $12.25 = $73.50, for the same $1,200.50. Payroll systems and the Department of Labor's regulations usually describe it the second way, as straight time plus a half-time premium, which matters as soon as the regular rate is not simply the hourly wage.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act the premium is owed for all hours over 40 in a workweek to employees who are not exempt (29 U.S.C. 207(a)(1)); the overtime calculator covers the workweek rules, California's daily overtime and double time in detail. This page is about the rate itself: what 1.5 is applied to, and when.

Rates with a link have their own page with pay for 1 to 10 overtime hours. The federal minimum wage of $7.25 gives a time-and-a-half rate of $10.88 (rounded from $10.875); state minimum wages are higher in most states and the overtime rate follows them. To go the other way, divide: if your overtime rate is $33.00, your regular rate is $33.00 ÷ 1.5 = $22.00.

Non-exempt employees, which is most hourly workers and a good many salaried ones. An employee is exempt from overtime only if the job meets a duties test for executive, administrative, professional, outside sales or certain computer work and, for most of those, the pay meets the salary test of 29 CFR 541.600: at least $684 a week, $35,568 a year, paid on a salary basis. The 2024 rule that would have raised the level to $1,128 a week was vacated by a federal court in November 2024 and never took effect; the Department of Labor removed it from the regulations in May 2026, so the $684 figure is the one in force. A salary above that level does not by itself make anyone exempt: the duties test must also be met, and a salaried employee who fails it is owed time and a half like anyone else.

Several states set higher salary floors and broader coverage; California and New York are the usual examples, and in those states the state rule applies because the FLSA is a floor, not a ceiling. Independent contractors are outside the FLSA altogether, which is why misclassification cases so often turn into overtime cases.

The FLSA does not require time and a half, or any premium, for work on a holiday, a Sunday or at night. Holiday pay at 1.5 times is a matter of the employer's policy, a union contract or, in a few places, state law; Rhode Island still requires premium pay for Sunday and holiday work in much of its retail sector. What the FLSA does require is that a holiday worked counts as hours worked for the 40-hour threshold, while a paid holiday not worked does not: 32 hours worked plus 8 hours of holiday pay is 40 hours of pay and zero hours of overtime.

When a contract does provide a holiday premium of 1.5 times, that premium can be credited against overtime owed for the same hours (29 CFR 778.203), so an employer is not required to pay time and a half twice. Check what your handbook says before assuming a holiday shift pays extra, and check whether holiday hours are "worked" in your employer's count before assuming a 48-hour holiday week pays 8 hours of overtime.

The 1.5 is applied to the regular rate, and 29 CFR 778.108 to 778.110 define that as all pay for the workweek, with a few listed exceptions, divided by the hours worked. Four situations change the figure:

A bonus that is promised in advance for attendance, production or quality is non-discretionary and must be included (29 CFR 778.211); a genuine surprise bonus at the employer's sole discretion is not. Two rates in one week give a weighted average (29 CFR 778.115), not the rate of the hours that happened to be overtime, unless an agreement made in advance assigns the rate of the work being performed (29 CFR 778.419). For tipped employees 29 CFR 531.60 makes the point that trips up restaurants every year: overtime is calculated on at least the full minimum wage of $7.25, so the cash overtime rate is $10.88 less the tip credit, never $2.13 × 1.5.

A non-exempt salaried employee's regular rate is the weekly salary divided by the hours it is meant to cover. If $1,000 a week is for a 40-hour week, the rate is $25.00 and each overtime hour pays $37.50. Monthly and annual salaries are converted first: annual ÷ 52, monthly × 12 ÷ 52.

The fluctuating workweek method of 29 CFR 778.114 is different and often misunderstood. If the salary is agreed to cover all hours worked in the week, however many, and the employee's hours actually vary, the regular rate is the salary divided by the hours worked that week, and only the half-time premium is owed on top, because the salary has already paid straight time for every hour. $1,000 for a 50-hour week is a regular rate of $20.00 and overtime of 10 × $10.00 = $100.00, where the fixed-40-hour reading would give 10 × $37.50 = $375.00. The method requires a clear mutual understanding and a salary that never dips below the minimum wage for the hours worked; without those, the fixed-hours reading applies.

Take the hours worked in each workweek from your time card, not from the pay period, because a biweekly check covers two separate overtime calculations and a semi-monthly check cuts through a week. Multiply the hours over 40 by your regular rate and by 1.5, and compare with the overtime line on the stub. If the stub shows overtime at exactly 1.5 times your base wage in a week when you also earned a shift differential or a production bonus, the regular rate was probably left at the base wage, and the premium on the extra pay is missing. The time card calculator produces the weekly hours and the pay at the rate you enter, so the comparison is one line.