The headline rule is simple: time and a half for every hour past 40 in a workweek.
The part that catches people out is the phrase the law actually uses. It isn't "1.5 times your hourly wage" — it's 1.5 times your regular rate of pay, and those two things are often different numbers.
The basic calculation
Example: You earn $20/hour and work 46 hours in one week.
- First 40 hours: 40 × $20 = $800
- 6 overtime hours: 6 × $30 = $180
- Total: $980
Note that it's a workweek, not a pay period. Your employer defines a fixed, recurring 7-day week. If you're paid every two weeks, overtime is worked out for each week separately — 50 hours one week and 30 the next is 10 hours of overtime, not zero, even though the two-week total is 80.
When your regular rate isn't your hourly wage
This is where real paychecks get miscalculated.
Your regular rate includes most of what you earned that week, not just base wages. It generally takes in:
- Nondiscretionary bonuses — anything promised in advance for hitting a target: production, attendance, safety, quality
- Shift differentials — extra pay for nights or weekends
- Commissions earned during that week
- Piece-rate earnings
It generally excludes genuinely discretionary bonuses (a surprise holiday gift with no pre-set criteria), reimbursed expenses, and paid time off you didn't work.
Worked example with a bonus
You earn $20/hour, work 45 hours, and receive a $100 production bonus for the week.
First, the regular rate — total straight-time earnings divided by total hours worked:
You've already been paid straight time for all 45 hours, so what remains is the extra half on the 5 overtime hours:
Total: $1,000 + $55.56 = $1,055.56
Calculated the lazy way — $20 base, 5 hours at $30 — you'd see $1,050. The $5.56 gap looks trivial on one week. Across a year of weekly bonuses, for a whole shift of workers, it's the kind of thing that turns into a back-pay claim.
Work out your overtime pay for any week
Open Overtime Calculator →Daily overtime: a state-level rule
Federal law counts only hours past 40 in a week. Work four 10-hour days and stop, and you've worked 40 hours — no federal overtime, despite the long days.
Several states go further. California is the strictest commonly cited example:
| Hours worked | California rate |
|---|---|
| Over 8 in a day | 1.5× |
| Over 12 in a day | 2× |
| Over 40 in a week | 1.5× |
| First 8 hours, 7th consecutive day | 1.5× |
| Beyond 8 hours, 7th consecutive day | 2× |
A 10-hour day at $20 in California pays (8 × $20) + (2 × $30) = $220, where the federal minimum would be $200.
State law always wins where it's more generous than federal. Alaska, Nevada and Colorado have their own daily overtime provisions too, each with different thresholds — check the rules where you actually work.
The salaried myth
"You're on salary, so you don't get overtime" is one of the most common payroll errors there is.
Salary is a payment method. Exemption is a legal status. They aren't the same thing. To be exempt you generally need to clear two separate hurdles:
- A salary threshold. A minimum weekly or annual amount, which is revised periodically — check current federal guidance, and your state's, since several set a higher bar.
- A duties test. Your actual day-to-day work has to fit a recognised exemption — executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, or certain computer roles.
Both must be true. Someone paid a modest salary doing routine non-managerial work is very often still entitled to overtime, whatever their job title says. Titles carry no weight here — "Assistant Manager" doesn't create an exemption if the role is mostly stocking shelves and running a till.
Things that commonly go wrong
- Averaging across two weeks. 50 hours then 30 is 10 hours of overtime. Each week stands alone.
- Comp time instead of pay. Private-sector employers generally can't swap overtime pay for time off. Public-sector rules differ.
- "Unauthorised" overtime going unpaid. If the employer knew or should have known the work happened, it's generally payable. They can discipline you for breaking the rule; they still owe the money.
- Off-the-clock work. Pre-shift setup, post-shift cleanup, mandatory training, answering messages at home — this is working time, and it counts toward 40.
- Unpaid short breaks. Short rest breaks, roughly 20 minutes or less, generally count as paid time. A genuine uninterrupted meal break usually doesn't — but if you're working through it, it does.
If your pay looks wrong
Start by reconstructing the week yourself: hours worked, base rate, any bonus or differential, then run the regular-rate math above. Compare that against the stub.
Bring specifics rather than a general complaint — a particular week, the hours, and the figure you expected. Most discrepancies turn out to be payroll configuration errors rather than anything deliberate, and they're usually fixed quickly once someone sees the arithmetic.
If it isn't resolved, the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division handles federal wage complaints, and your state labor agency covers state-level rules.
Related: How to Read a Pay Stub for decoding the deductions, and Salary to Hourly if you're comparing a salaried offer against hourly work.