Overtime calculator

How do you calculate overtime pay?

Multiply the overtime hours by the hourly rate and by the overtime multiplier, then add the pay for regular hours: pay = rate x regular hours + rate x multiplier x overtime hours. A multiplier of 1.5 is time and a half; 2 is double time.

With the defaults, $20 an hour for 40 regular hours is $800. Eight overtime hours at 1.5 times $20, which is $30 an hour, add $240. The week comes to $1,040 before tax, an average of $21.67 for each of the 48 hours.

Of the $240 overtime pay, $160 is straight time for the 8 hours and $80 is the premium, the extra half on top. The calculator shows that premium separately, because it is the part that depends on the multiplier and the part that some rules describe on its own.

Every number here is yours to enter. The page does not decide whether you are entitled to overtime, which hours count, or which rate applies: your contract, your employer's policy and the law where you work decide that.

Time and a half and double time rates

The overtime hourly rate is simply the regular rate times the multiplier:

Some pay agreements use more than one overtime rate: time and a half for the first extra hours and double time after a point. Switch on Second overtime rate to add a tier. Two hours at double time on top of the default week add $80, taking the total to $1,120.

What is the US overtime rule after 40 hours?

The US Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division states that, unless exempt, employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay. The US 40-hour week tab applies exactly that split.

• The workweek. The department defines it as a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It need not start on a Monday.
• No averaging. The department states that averaging of hours over two or more weeks is not permitted. At $20 an hour, a 50-hour week followed by a 30-hour week pays $1,100 plus $600, or $1,700, not the $1,600 that two 40-hour weeks would pay.
• Weekends and holidays. The FLSA does not require overtime pay for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays or regular days of rest unless overtime hours are worked on those days.

State law can add rules of its own. The one this page explains below is California, read at the state's own site.

What is the regular rate, and why is the premium only half?

The Department of Labor's Fact Sheet 23 (revised October 2019) says the regular rate includes all remuneration for employment except certain payments excluded by the Act itself. So a bonus or commission that counts as pay can raise the regular rate above the hourly figure on a contract. This calculator takes the hourly rate you enter as the regular rate and does not add bonuses to it.

The fact sheet's own example is a salaried employee hired for a 45-hour workweek at $405 a week. The regular rate is $405 / 45 = $9.00. Because the salary already pays straight time for all 45 hours, the extra due is only half the regular rate on the 5 overtime hours: $4.50 x 5 = $22.50, for $427.50 in all.

For an hourly worker the two views give the same total. At $20 an hour and 48 hours, straight time for every hour is $960 and the half-time premium on 8 hours is $80: $1,040, matching 40 hours at $20 plus 8 at $30.

How does California daily overtime work?

California's Labor Commissioner's Office sets out daily as well as weekly overtime for nonexempt employees aged 18 or over, and for some 16- and 17-year-olds. Its overtime questions and answers state these general rules:

• 1.5 times the regular rate for hours over 8 and up to 12 in a workday, for hours over 40 in the workweek, and for the first 8 hours on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek.
• Double the regular rate for hours over 12 in a workday, and for hours over 8 on the seventh consecutive day.

The office also notes a number of exemptions and exceptions to these general rules, including alternative workweek schedules.

To price one long day, use Your overtime terms. A 13-hour day at $20 an hour is 8 regular hours ($160), 4 hours at 1.5 ($120) and 1 hour at double time ($40): $320, against $260 at straight time. A 10-hour seventh consecutive day is 8 hours at 1.5 ($240) and 2 at double time ($80), also $320. The calculator does not decide how daily and weekly hours combine across a whole week; it prices the hours you put in each tier.

Do UK employers have to pay for overtime?

No. gov.uk states that employers do not have to pay workers for overtime. However, your average pay for the total hours you work must not fall below the National Minimum Wage. Your employment contract will usually set out any overtime rates and how they are worked out, and some employers give time off in lieu instead of pay.

gov.uk lists these hourly rates from April 2026: £12.71 for workers aged 21 and over (the National Living Wage), £10.85 for ages 18 to 20, and £8 for under-18s and apprentices. It also already lists rates from April 2027 of £13.21, £11.27 and £8.31. The rates change on 1 April every year.

The UK minimum wage check tab divides the pay for the week by every hour worked, paid or not, and compares the average with the minimum you enter:

• £13 an hour for 40 contracted hours is £520. Add 10 unpaid overtime hours and the average over 50 hours is £10.40, below £12.71. Paying all 50 hours at £12.71 would cost £635.50, which is £115.50 more.
• £16 an hour for the same 40 hours is £640, an average of £12.80 over 50 hours, which stays above £12.71.

At £13 the average dips below £12.71 after less than one unpaid extra hour; at £16 it takes about 10.35 hours. This is a simplified check of the arithmetic, not a legal determination: the full minimum wage rules on pay periods and what counts as working time are not modelled.

Worked examples in euros and dollars

• Euros at time and a quarter. €16 an hour for 39 regular hours is €624. Six overtime hours at 1.25 times, €20 an hour, add €120, so the week pays €744. The premium above straight time is €24.
• Dollars, the US 40-hour rule. 48 hours in one workweek at $20 is 40 hours at $20 ($800) and 8 hours at $30 ($240), or $1,040. Thirty-five hours earns $700, with no overtime at all.

The currency selector formats amounts in any of 24 currencies. Rates and pay are never converted.

How each input moves overtime pay

• Hourly rate. Everything scales with it: doubling the rate doubles the week's pay and the premium.
• Overtime hours. Each extra hour adds the rate times the multiplier; at $20 and 1.5, that is $30 an hour.
• Multiplier. Moving from 1.5 to 2 on 8 hours at $20 adds 8 x $10 = $80.
• On the UK tab, unpaid overtime pulls the average down with every hour, while a higher basic rate or overtime paid at the basic rate pushes it up. Overtime paid at 1 times the basic rate keeps the average exactly at the basic rate.

The first chart draws the week's pay as hours rise, at your rate and at straight time, so the gap between the lines is the premium. On the US tab the line bends at 40 hours.

Overtime in Excel, common mistakes and what this leaves out

With the rate in A2, regular hours in B2, overtime hours in C2 and the multiplier in D2, total pay is =A2*B2+A2*C2*D2, which returns 1,040 for the defaults. For the US weekly rule with all hours in E2, use =A2*MIN(E2,40)+1.5*A2*MAX(E2-40,0).

• Adding 1.5 hours of pay to every hour. Time and a half means each overtime hour is paid at 1.5 times the rate, not that the whole week is.
• Averaging two weeks. Under the federal rule each workweek is counted on its own.
• Leaving bonuses out of the regular rate. Pay that counts toward the regular rate raises the overtime rate too.
• Assuming weekend work is overtime. Under the FLSA it is overtime only if it takes the week past 40 hours, unless a contract or state law says more.

Not modelled: income tax and other deductions on overtime, exemptions from overtime law, state rules other than the California summary above, shift premiums and allowances. To turn a regular hourly rate into a yearly figure, use the hourly to salary calculator.

Regular rate: the hourly rate overtime is built on. Multiplier: how many times the regular rate an overtime hour pays. Premium: the pay above straight time. Workweek: a fixed run of seven consecutive days. Time off in lieu: time off given instead of overtime pay.

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