How to calculate overtime pay
Two steps. Find your regular rate, then add half of it for every hour past the threshold. The regular rate is not simply the number on your offer letter: it is everything you earned in that workweek divided by every hour you actually worked. Overtime is then paid at one and one-half times that figure.
The regulation works it through with a plain example. At $12 an hour across 46 hours, straight time covers all 46 hours at $12.00, which is $552. The 6 hours past 40 then owe another half-rate each, $36, bringing the week to $588. Read the other way round, that is 40 hours at $12.00 plus 6 at $18.00. Both routes give the same number, which is a useful check on any payslip.
One rule underpins all of it: each workweek stands alone. Hours cannot be averaged across two or more weeks, whatever your pay frequency. Thirty hours one week and 50 the next still owes overtime on the 10 hours in the second week, even though the fortnight averages exactly 40.
Enter the week, not the month
Overtime is settled one workweek at a time and hours are never averaged across weeks. Enter a single week's hours, even if your paycheck covers two.
Add every rate you worked
Two jobs at two rates in one week means your regular rate is the weighted average of both. Add the second rate and the calculator blends them the way the regulation requires.
Include the bonus
A production, attendance or target bonus raises the rate your overtime is built on, so it is worth more than its face value in any week you worked overtime.
What your overtime rate is
Once you have the regular rate, the premium rate is one and one-half times it, and the useful figure is the gap: at $20 an hour every overtime hour puts another $10 in the week. For the rate at every hourly wage, plus double time and what a holiday shift is worth, our time and a half calculator covers that side in full. The rest of this page stays on the week: the regular rate itself, and the three things that change it.
What a 45, 50 or 60-hour week is worth
Gross pay for one workweek, before tax, at the federal 40-hour threshold. The jump from 40 to 50 hours is worth more than a quarter of the base week, because those 10 hours each carry the premium. This is the table to open before agreeing to a stretch of long weeks, and the one to check a payslip against afterwards.
| Hourly rate | 40 hours | 45 hours | 50 hours | 55 hours | 60 hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $12.00 | $480 | $570 | $660 | $750 | $840 |
| $13.00 | $520 | $618 | $715 | $813 | $910 |
| $14.00 | $560 | $665 | $770 | $875 | $980 |
| $15.00 | $600 | $713 | $825 | $938 | $1,050 |
| $16.00 | $640 | $760 | $880 | $1,000 | $1,120 |
| $17.00 | $680 | $808 | $935 | $1,063 | $1,190 |
| $18.00 | $720 | $855 | $990 | $1,125 | $1,260 |
| $20.00 | $800 | $950 | $1,100 | $1,250 | $1,400 |
| $22.00 | $880 | $1,045 | $1,210 | $1,375 | $1,540 |
| $25.00 | $1,000 | $1,188 | $1,375 | $1,563 | $1,750 |
| $30.00 | $1,200 | $1,425 | $1,650 | $1,875 | $2,100 |
| $35.00 | $1,400 | $1,663 | $1,925 | $2,188 | $2,450 |
Salaried and still owed overtime
A salary does not by itself remove the right to overtime, and this is where the calculators in this space stop being useful. If the job does not meet the exemption tests, you are salaried non-exempt: your regular rate is the salary divided by the hours it was intended to cover, and overtime is owed on top of it.
Salaries quoted for other periods convert first. A monthly figure becomes a weekly one by multiplying by 12 and dividing by 52; a semi-monthly figure by multiplying by 24 and dividing by 52. The regulation's example is neat: $1,560 a month and $780 twice a month both come to $360 a week, which over 40 hours is a $9 regular rate.
| Weekly salary | Same pay, monthly | Regular rate | Overtime rate | Owed for a 50-hour week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $600 | $2,600 | $15.00 | $22.50 | $825 |
| $700 | $3,033 | $17.50 | $26.25 | $963 |
| $800 | $3,467 | $20.00 | $30.00 | $1,100 |
| $900 | $3,900 | $22.50 | $33.75 | $1,238 |
| $1,000 | $4,333 | $25.00 | $37.50 | $1,375 |
| $1,200 | $5,200 | $30.00 | $45.00 | $1,650 |
Assumes the salary covers 40 hours and the week ran to 50. If your offer specified fewer covered hours, your regular rate is higher and so is everything downstream of it.
The bonus rule almost every calculator misses
A non-discretionary bonus, meaning one you earned by hitting a target, showing up, or hitting a safety or production mark, is not a separate payment sitting next to your wages. It has to be added to the week's earnings before the regular rate is worked out. That raises the rate, which raises the premium, which means the bonus is worth more than the number written on it.
The regulation's own figures: a $12 rate over 46 hours is a $588 week. Add a $46 production bonus and the regular rate rises to $13.00, the overtime rate to $19.50, and the week to $637. The bonus added $49, not $46. Genuinely discretionary bonuses and gifts stay outside the calculation.
| Non-discretionary bonus | Regular rate becomes | Overtime rate becomes | Bonus is actually worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| $25 | $12.54 | $18.82 | $27 |
| $46 | $13.00 | $19.50 | $49 |
| $75 | $13.63 | $20.45 | $80 |
| $100 | $14.17 | $21.26 | $107 |
| $150 | $15.26 | $22.89 | $160 |
| $200 | $16.35 | $24.52 | $213 |
Rows computed at $12 an hour over 46 hours. The second row is the regulation's published example.
Two rates in one week
Where you work two kinds of job at two rates in the same week, the regular rate is the weighted average of them, not whichever rate you happened to be on when the clock passed 40. Thirty hours at $10 and 20 at $20 is $700 across 50 hours, so the regular rate is $14, the 10 overtime hours owe $70 of premium, and the week comes to $770. Paying the premium off the lower rate would short you, and it is a common error on a split-shift payslip.
When the overtime is the problem
There is a version of this where the maths is correct and the week is still wrong. Consistent overtime that covers ordinary bills is a pay problem wearing a scheduling costume. If that is the situation, the more useful question is what the job pays relative to the market: our free salary benchmark puts your role against government wage percentiles for your state, and the pay raise calculator shows what a raise would have to be to replace those hours.
If the hours are the point rather than the pay, that is worth naming too. Our guide to beating burnout without quitting covers the changes that work before an exit does, and job satisfaction statistics 2026 is the wider picture on how common this pattern is.
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers, each one checked against the regulation it comes from.
Sources
Federal overtime rules, read in full on 3 September 2026. Every worked example quoted above is published in the section it is credited to.
- 29 CFR 778.104 Each workweek stands alone
- 29 CFR 778.107 General standard for overtime pay
- 29 CFR 778.109 The regular rate is an hourly rate
- 29 CFR 778.110 Hourly rate employee
- 29 CFR 778.113 Salaried employees, general
- 29 CFR 778.115 Employees working at two or more rates
- 29 CFR 778.208 Inclusion and exclusion of bonuses
Overtime buys you the month. It does not buy you the next ten years.
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