To calculate your paycheck hours and overtime pay, record your exact clock-in and clock-out times each day, subtract unpaid meal breaks, convert the minutes to decimals, and add the days together for the workweek. The first 40 hours are paid at your regular rate. Every hour beyond 40 is overtime, paid at no less than 1.5 times that rate under federal law.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 207 – Maximum Hours Keeping your own record gives you something independent to compare against your pay stub.
What Counts as Paid Time
Before you log anything, be clear on which minutes belong in the total. Short rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes are paid work time and must be included.2U.S. Department of Labor. Breaks and Meal Periods Meal breaks of 30 minutes or longer are generally unpaid, but only when you are fully relieved of duties. Eating at your desk while answering emails is paid time.
Mandatory training and meetings count as paid hours unless all four of these are true: the session is held outside normal hours, attendance is truly voluntary, the content is unrelated to your job, and you perform no other work during it. Travel between job sites during the workday is compensable. Your normal commute from home is not.3U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #22: Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
Record Your Clock-In and Clock-Out Times
Use a notebook, spreadsheet, or time-tracking app. Log the exact minute you start and stop each day, and log the start and end of every unpaid meal break. “Started at 7:45 AM, left at 5:15 PM” is useful. “Worked roughly 8 to 5” is not.
For overtime, what matters is the workweek, defined as any fixed, recurring period of 168 consecutive hours (seven 24-hour days).4U.S. Department of Labor. Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act Your employer picks when it starts, and it does not have to be Monday. If you are not sure, ask payroll.
Convert Minutes to Decimals
Payroll math runs in decimals, not hours and minutes. Divide the minutes by 60. Fifteen minutes is 0.25. Thirty minutes is 0.50. Forty-five minutes is 0.75. Ten minutes is about 0.17.
- 5 minutes: 0.08
- 10 minutes: 0.17
- 15 minutes: 0.25
- 20 minutes: 0.33
- 30 minutes: 0.50
- 45 minutes: 0.75
A shift from 7:45 AM to 4:15 PM is 8 hours and 30 minutes, or 8.50 hours. Subtract an unpaid 30-minute lunch (0.50) and you have 8.00 paid hours for the day. Do this conversion for every shift before adding anything. Mixing hours-and-minutes with decimals mid-calculation is where most errors creep in.
Add Daily Hours Into a Weekly Total
For each day: clock-out minus clock-in, minus any unpaid meal breaks. A full week might look like this:
- Monday: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, 30-min lunch → 9.00 − 0.50 = 8.50 hours
- Tuesday: 7:45 AM to 4:30 PM, 30-min lunch → 8.75 − 0.50 = 8.25 hours
- Wednesday: 8:00 AM to 6:15 PM, 30-min lunch → 10.25 − 0.50 = 9.75 hours
- Thursday: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, 30-min lunch → 9.00 − 0.50 = 8.50 hours
- Friday: 7:30 AM to 5:45 PM, 30-min lunch → 10.25 − 0.50 = 9.75 hours
Adding the five daily totals: 8.50 + 8.25 + 9.75 + 8.50 + 9.75 = 44.75 hours. That single number is what you compare against the 40-hour overtime threshold.
Split Regular Hours From Overtime
Federal law puts the dividing line at 40 hours in a single workweek. The first 40 are straight time. Everything beyond that gets paid at 1.5 times your regular rate or more.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 207 – Maximum Hours Using the 44.75-hour week above, that breaks into 40.00 regular hours and 4.75 overtime hours.
At a $20.00 hourly rate:
- Regular pay: 40.00 × $20.00 = $800.00
- Overtime pay: 4.75 × $30.00 = $142.50
- Gross pay: $800.00 + $142.50 = $942.50
Overtime is calculated per workweek, not per pay period. If you are paid biweekly and work 45 hours one week and 35 the next, you are owed 5 hours of overtime for the first week. Your employer cannot average the two to claim you worked 40 per week.4U.S. Department of Labor. Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act
Your Regular Rate May Be Higher Than Your Base Pay
The 1.5 multiplier applies to your “regular rate,” which is not always your base hourly wage. The regular rate includes shift differentials, non-discretionary bonuses, and commissions.5U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #56A: Overview of the Regular Rate of Pay Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) A truly discretionary bonus, where both the decision to pay and the amount are entirely up to the employer, can be excluded. A promised production or attendance bonus is non-discretionary and raises your regular rate.
To find the regular rate when extra pay is involved, add all qualifying pay for the workweek and divide by total hours worked. If you earned $850 in base pay plus a $50 production bonus for 44 hours, your regular rate is $900 ÷ 44 = $20.45. Your overtime premium is based on $20.45, not on your base rate.5U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #56A: Overview of the Regular Rate of Pay Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
Two Different Pay Rates in the Same Week
If you work two jobs for the same employer at different hourly rates in one week, overtime is based on a weighted average. Add total earnings from both jobs and divide by total hours.6eCFR. 29 CFR 778.115 – Employees Working at Two or More Rates Say you work 25 hours at $18.00 and 20 hours at $22.00, totaling $890.00 for 45 hours. The weighted regular rate is $890.00 ÷ 45 = $19.78. Your 5 overtime hours pay at $19.78 × 1.5 = $29.67 per hour.
Payroll Rounding Rules
Many employers round clock times to the nearest 5, 10, or 15 minutes. Federal regulations allow this, but the rounding must be neutral over time and cannot consistently favor the employer.7eCFR. 29 CFR 785.48 – Use of Time Clocks Under a 15-minute rounding system, 7:53 AM can round to 8:00 AM, but 7:52 AM should round down to 7:45 AM.
This is why your minute-level log matters. Compare it against your pay stub each period. A pattern of lost time suggests rounding that is not averaging out fairly.
Unauthorized Overtime Still Has to Be Paid
Some employers post rules saying overtime must be approved in advance. Those rules are enforceable as workplace policy, so an employer can discipline you for working unapproved hours. But the hours themselves still have to be paid. Federal regulations state that an announcement of no compensation for unauthorized overtime does not eliminate your right to be paid for time actually worked.8eCFR. 29 CFR Part 778 – Overtime Compensation If you stayed late and the employer knew or had reason to know, those hours count.9eCFR. 29 CFR 778.315 – Payment for All Hours Worked in Overtime Workweek Is Required
Who Qualifies for Overtime
Not every worker gets overtime. The FLSA exempts certain salaried employees in executive, administrative, and professional roles who meet both a salary threshold and a duties test.10U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #17A: Exemption for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Employees Under the FLSA Workers performing hands-on, manual, or repetitive work are generally non-exempt regardless of title or pay level.
A 2024 DOL rule attempted to raise the salary minimum to $1,128 per week ($58,656 annually), but a federal court vacated that rule. The DOL is currently enforcing the 2019 threshold of $684 per week ($35,568 annually).11U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption If your salary is under $684 per week, you are almost certainly entitled to overtime whatever your duties. Above that, your actual day-to-day responsibilities decide whether the exemption applies.
Some States Add Daily Overtime
Federal law only triggers overtime at the 40-hour weekly line. A handful of states also require overtime when a single workday runs past a set number of hours, typically eight. Alaska, California, Colorado, and Nevada each have some form of daily overtime rule. California’s is the most aggressive, adding double-time after 12 hours in a day. In those states you need to track daily totals as well, because you can earn overtime on a single day even if your weekly hours stay under 40.
If Your Paycheck Doesn’t Match Your Numbers
Start with your supervisor or payroll department. Keep it factual: show your log and the pay stub side by side and point to the days where the numbers diverge. Many discrepancies are honest mistakes that get corrected quickly.
If that does not resolve it, you can file a complaint with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243.12U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint An investigator will review the employer’s records and interview employees. Employers who violated federal overtime rules can be liable for the full amount of unpaid wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, effectively doubling what they owe.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 216 – Penalties A private lawsuit can additionally recover attorney’s fees and court costs.
The federal statute of limitations for wage claims is two years from the violation, or three years if the violation was willful. Keep your personal time records for at least three years. Employers are required to retain payroll records for a similar period, but an independent log of your own puts you in a much stronger position if a dispute reaches an investigator’s desk.