To calculate time and a half, multiply your regular hourly rate by 1.5, then multiply that overtime rate by the number of hours you worked beyond 40 in a single workweek. The arithmetic is simple. The part that trips people up is the “regular rate,” which under federal law often includes more than your base wage.
The Basic Formula
Start with your hourly rate. Multiply by 1.5. That is your overtime rate. Apply it to every hour past 40 in the workweek.
Say you earn a straight $24 per hour and work 48 hours in a week. Your overtime rate is $24 × 1.5 = $36. The breakdown:
- Straight time: 40 hours × $24 = $960
- Overtime: 8 hours × $36 = $288
- Total: $1,248
The federal regulation describes an equivalent shortcut that payroll systems often use: pay the base rate for all hours worked (48 × $24 = $1,152), then add a half-time premium of $12 for each overtime hour (8 × $12 = $96). You land at the same $1,248.1eCFR. 29 CFR 778.110 – Hourly Rate Employee
Finding Your True Regular Rate
Your “regular rate” is total pay for the workweek divided by total hours worked, and it drives the overtime calculation.2eCFR. 29 CFR 778.109 – The Regular Rate Is an Hourly Rate If your only pay is a flat hourly wage, your regular rate equals that wage. If you receive anything else, you likely have to fold it in before multiplying by 1.5.
Pay that must be included: shift differentials, non-discretionary bonuses, commissions, piece-rate earnings, and the reasonable cost of any meals or lodging your employer provides as compensation.3eCFR. Part 778 Overtime Compensation
Pay that can be excluded:
- Gifts and holiday bonuses not tied to hours, production, or efficiency
- Vacation, holiday, and sick pay (periods when no work is performed)
- Truly discretionary bonuses, where the employer controls both whether to pay and how much, right up to the end of the period
- Employer contributions to retirement, health, or similar benefit plans
- Reasonable reimbursements for travel or other business expenses
- Premium pay already at 1.5x the base rate for weekend, holiday, or daily overtime
The discretionary bonus exclusion is narrower than most people think. The label on the payment is irrelevant. If the bonus was promised in advance, tied to a formula, or announced as an incentive for attendance, productivity, or retention, it is non-discretionary and must be built into the regular rate. A genuine surprise bonus for extraordinary effort can qualify as discretionary; a “discretionary holiday gift” calculated from production targets cannot.4eCFR. 29 CFR 778.211 – Discretionary Bonuses
Worked Examples for Common Pay Situations
Hourly Plus a Non-Discretionary Bonus
Take the same $24-per-hour worker and add a $96 production bonus for a 48-hour week. Combine the straight-time wages and the bonus: (48 × $24) + $96 = $1,248. Divide by 48 hours to get a regular rate of $26. The half-time premium owed on top of straight-time pay is $13 for each of the 8 overtime hours, which adds $104 to the week’s earnings.5eCFR. 29 CFR 778.110 – Hourly Rate Employee
Salaried Non-Exempt Employee
A non-exempt worker on an $800 weekly salary for a standard 40-hour schedule has a regular rate of $800 ÷ 40 = $20. The overtime rate is $30. Work 45 hours and the pay is $800 + (5 × $30) = $950.1eCFR. 29 CFR 778.110 – Hourly Rate Employee
Two Jobs at Different Rates for the Same Employer
When you perform two kinds of work at two hourly rates for one employer in the same workweek, your regular rate is the weighted average. Add all earnings from both rates, divide by total hours worked, and use that blended figure as the base for your overtime premium.6U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 23 – Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA
Tipped Employee
When an employer claims a tip credit, your regular rate is the full minimum wage, not the reduced cash wage. At the federal minimum of $7.25, the overtime rate is $7.25 × 1.5 = $10.88 per hour. The $5.12 tip credit still applies, so the employer must pay at least $5.76 in direct cash wages for each overtime hour. The tip credit itself does not grow during overtime.7U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Overtime Calculator Advisor – Tipped Employees
Which Hours Count Toward the 40
The Fair Labor Standards Act defines a workweek as seven consecutive 24-hour periods, 168 hours in all. Your employer picks when that window starts, and it does not have to align with a calendar week, but it must be fixed and consistent.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC Ch. 8 – Fair Labor Standards
Each workweek stands alone. An employer cannot average hours across a two-week pay period to escape overtime. Fifty hours one week and thirty the next means ten overtime hours owed for the first week, even though the two-week average is 40. This is where payroll errors most often appear.
Several categories of time count even though they may not feel like typical work:
- Travel. Your ordinary commute does not count. Travel between job sites during the workday always does. A special one-day assignment to a different city is compensable, minus what you would normally spend commuting to your regular location.9U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 22 – Hours Worked Under the FLSA
- Training and meetings. Generally compensable. Time can only be excluded if all four conditions apply: it is outside normal work hours, truly voluntary, unrelated to the job, and no other work is performed. Fail one and the time counts.9U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 22 – Hours Worked Under the FLSA
- On-call time. The question is whether you are “engaged to wait” or “waiting to be engaged.” A firefighter playing cards at the station is working because the employer controls location and freedom. A plumber at home with a company phone, otherwise free to live their life until a call comes in, generally is not.9U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 22 – Hours Worked Under the FLSA
- Unauthorized overtime. If your employer knows or has reason to know you are working, the time counts. The statutory phrase is “suffer or permit to work.” A policy against unauthorized overtime does not change this unless the employer actually enforces it.10U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Hours Worked Advisor – Suffer or Permit to Work
When the Standard Formula Doesn’t Apply
Fluctuating Workweek
Some salaried non-exempt employees are paid under the fluctuating workweek method. Here, a fixed salary covers all hours at straight time, and only a half-time premium (not time and a half) is added for each overtime hour. Because the salary is spread across more hours when you work more, the effective half-time rate drops as hours rise.11eCFR. 29 CFR 778.114 – Fluctuating Workweek Method of Computing Overtime
Several conditions must all be true for this method to be lawful: hours genuinely fluctuate from week to week, the salary is fixed regardless of hours, that salary stays above minimum wage even in the heaviest weeks, and both sides share a clear understanding that the salary covers all hours. Employers cannot switch to this method retroactively to reduce an overtime bill.
State Daily Overtime
Federal overtime only kicks in after 40 hours in a workweek; the FLSA has no daily threshold. Some states require overtime after a set number of hours in a single day (often eight), and a few add double time after 12 hours in a day. When state and federal standards both apply, your employer must follow whichever produces the larger paycheck.
If You’re Not Sure You Qualify
Most American workers are covered by the FLSA’s overtime rules by default. To avoid paying you overtime, your employer has to show you fit a specific exemption. The common exemptions cover executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, and certain computer employees. Qualifying usually requires both earning at least $684 per week on a salary basis and performing primary duties that involve management, independent judgment on significant business matters, or advanced specialized knowledge.12U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemptions
Pay alone never makes someone exempt. Construction workers, electricians, plumbers, mechanics, and other tradespeople doing primarily manual work are entitled to overtime regardless of what they earn. The same goes for police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and other first responders, regardless of rank.13U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17A – Exemption for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Employees Under the FLSA
Independent contractors have no overtime right under the FLSA, which gives some employers an incentive to label workers as contractors who are really employees. If you are economically dependent on one company for work rather than running your own business, you may be misclassified, and the overtime rules may still apply to you.14Federal Register. Employee or Independent Contractor Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act
If the Math Doesn’t Match Your Paycheck
Run the calculation yourself using the regular-rate rules above. If your result is higher than what you were paid, start with your records. Employers must keep payroll records showing the regular rate, hours worked each day and each week, straight-time earnings, overtime premium pay, and total wages for every non-exempt employee. These records must be preserved for at least three years, and underlying time records for at least two.15eCFR. Part 516 Records to Be Kept by Employers You can request copies. Keep your own log of hours as well, especially if your employer’s timekeeping is unreliable.
A few procedural points worth knowing. Overtime does not have to be paid in the exact week it was earned, but it is due on the regular payday for the pay period covering that workweek. A short delay is allowed when a complex regular rate (for example, one affected by a retroactive bonus) cannot be computed in time, but payment cannot be pushed past the next regular payday after the calculation can reasonably be done.16eCFR. 29 CFR 778.106 – Time of Payment
Private-sector employers also cannot substitute compensatory time off for overtime pay. Offering a future hour of paid time off instead of the 1.5x premium is only lawful for government employers. In the private sector, overtime hours must be paid in wages at the overtime rate.
An employer that fails to pay required overtime typically owes the unpaid wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, which doubles the liability before any attorneys’ fees.17Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties A claim must generally be filed within two years of the violation, or three years if the violation was willful.18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 255 – Statute of Limitations Waiting too long means losing the ability to recover the earliest underpayments, even when the shortfall continued for years.