Overtime Pay Calculator
Price a pay period that includes overtime — and get the part most calculators skip: when a nondiscretionary bonus is in the period, the overtime premium has to be computed on a higher regular rate, not on the base wage.
On this page
The regular rate is not always the hourly rate
Overtime is priced from the "regular rate of pay", and that is a defined term rather than a synonym for your hourly wage. When a nondiscretionary bonus lands in a workweek — a production bonus, an attendance bonus, a promised incentive — the rule is that it has to be spread across the hours worked and folded into the rate before the premium is calculated.
A worker on $24 an hour who works 48 hours and receives a $75 attendance bonus has a regular rate of $25.56, not $24. Every overtime hour is therefore worth more than a straightforward time-and-a-half on the base wage would suggest. This calculator does that adjustment and shows both rates so the effect is visible.
A genuinely discretionary bonus — one neither promised nor expected, decided after the fact — is excluded from the regular rate. The distinction is about what was communicated in advance, not about what the payment is called.
How the pay is assembled
Overtime is not "1.5 times the rate for those hours" bolted on top of nothing. It is straight time for every hour worked, plus a premium on the overtime hours:
gross = base rate × all hours + bonus + premiumpremium = (multiplier − 1) × regular rate × overtime hours
Splitting it that way is what lets the bonus raise only the premium rather than being paid twice over the overtime hours. With no bonus the two approaches give the same answer, which is why the shortcut usually goes unnoticed.
A worked example
$24 an hour, 40 regular hours, 8 overtime hours at 1.5, 4 double-time hours at 2, and a $75 nondiscretionary bonus, paid weekly.
Straight time on all 52 hours is $1,248. The regular rate becomes ($1,248 + $75) ÷ 52 = $25.44. The overtime premium is 0.5 × $25.44 × 8 = $101.77, and the double-time premium is 1.0 × $25.44 × 4 = $101.77. Gross pay is $1,248 + $75 + $101.77 + $101.77 = $1,526.54.
Ignore the bonus in the rate and the two premiums come to $192 instead of $203.54 — an $11.54 shortfall in a single week, and about $600 across a year of similar weeks.
Who is actually entitled to overtime
Not everyone. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires premium pay after 40 hours in a workweek for covered non-exempt employees, and several categories fall outside that: executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, and certain computer roles, subject to salary and duties tests.
Some states go further than federal law. A few require daily overtime after eight hours, and some require double time past a higher daily threshold. Where state and federal rules differ, the one more favourable to the employee applies. This calculator prices whatever multipliers you enter; it does not decide whether you are owed them.
What the annualized figure means
It multiplies this pay period by the number of periods in a year, which is useful as a ceiling and misleading as a plan. Overtime is rarely spread evenly, and it can be cut without any change to your hourly rate.
If you want an annual figure from a typical week rather than an exceptional one, the hourly to salary calculator takes an average overtime figure and unpaid weeks alongside it.
What this does not cover
- Tax and deductions. These are gross figures. See take-home pay for what arrives.
- Shift differentials. A night or weekend premium is part of the regular rate and is not modelled separately — fold it into the base rate if it applies to all your hours.
- The fluctuating workweek method. A different way of computing overtime for salaried non-exempt employees, with its own rules.
- Compensatory time. Available to some public-sector employees in place of premium pay.
- Whether the hours were properly recorded. Unrecorded work that an employer knew about is still generally compensable.
See our methodology for how these tools are built and tested.
Frequently asked questions
How much is time and a half on $20 an hour?
$30 an hour, if there is no bonus in the period. Ten overtime hours would add $300 on top of the straight-time pay for those hours already counted in the base.
With a nondiscretionary bonus in the same week the premium is higher, because the bonus raises the regular rate the premium is computed from.
Why does my bonus change my overtime rate?
Because federal rules define the regular rate to include nondiscretionary compensation. A bonus you were promised for hitting a target is part of what you earned for those hours, so it belongs in the rate.
The employer spreads the bonus across the hours worked and recalculates the premium. A truly discretionary bonus — unannounced and decided afterwards — is left out.
Is overtime calculated per week or per pay period?
Per workweek under federal law, not per pay period. On a biweekly schedule, 50 hours one week and 30 the next is ten hours of overtime, not zero — the weeks are not averaged.
Enter one week at a time if your weeks differ, then add the results.
Does my salary mean I cannot get overtime?
No. Being paid a salary does not by itself make someone exempt. Exemption depends on the salary level and on the actual duties of the job, and misclassification is common.
The Department of Labor publishes the tests. If your duties do not match an exemption, being salaried does not remove the entitlement.
Do paid holidays and vacation count towards the 40 hours?
Not under federal law. Overtime is owed for hours actually worked, so a week with 8 holiday hours and 36 worked hours is 36 hours worked — no overtime, even though the paycheck covers 44.
Some employers and union contracts are more generous. That is a policy choice rather than a legal requirement.
What is double time and when does it apply?
Twice the regular rate. Federal law does not require it at all; where it appears it comes from state law, a union agreement, or an employer policy — commonly past twelve hours in a day or on a seventh consecutive day.
Enter your own multiplier and hours; the calculator does not assume any jurisdiction's rule.
Related calculators
This calculator is provided for general educational and estimation purposes only and is not legal, employment, or financial advice. It does not determine whether you are entitled to overtime. Exemption status, industry rules, and state law all affect that, and the U.S. Department of Labor and your state labor agency are the authorities on it.