How to Calculate Time and a Half: Overtime Pay Step by Step

How to calculate time and a half: multiply your regular rate of pay by 1.5, then pay that rate for every hour over 40 in the workweek. A worker earning $28.85 an hour has an overtime rate of $43.28.

That is the whole formula. What trips people up is the first number, because the regular rate is not always the hourly rate on your offer letter.

What counts as overtime, and when time and a half starts

Federal overtime starts after 40 hours in one workweek. Hours 1 to 40 pay straight time, and every hour past 40 pays one and a half times the regular rate. The workweek is a fixed seven day period the employer picks, and two weeks never get averaged together.

So 50 hours one week and 30 the next still earns 10 hours of overtime pay. The Labor Department’s overtime rules set out who is covered.

Federal law says nothing about long days, weekends or holidays. A nine hour Tuesday is not overtime by itself. States can add more, and some do: California pays time and a half after 8 hours in a day and double time after 12. The overtime definition has the one sentence version.

Time and a half means what it says. One times your rate for the hour, plus half again as a premium for working it.

Your regular rate is not always your hourly rate

The regular rate is all pay for the week divided by all hours worked. For an hourly worker with no extras, it matches the base rate. Add anything else to the check and it moves.

Counted in the regular rate:

• shift differentials for nights, evenings or weekends
• nondiscretionary bonuses for production, attendance, safety or hitting a target
• commissions and piece rate earnings

Left out:

• discretionary bonuses, where nothing was promised in advance
• gifts
• holiday, vacation and sick pay, because those are not hours worked
• reimbursed expenses and benefit contributions

That last group matters. A week with 36 hours worked plus 8 hours of holiday pay shows 44 paid hours and owes no overtime, since only 36 hours were worked. These rules all come from the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Working out one week of overtime pay step by step

Start from the standard example on this site and make it hourly. A single filer earning $60,000 a year works 2,080 hours, so the base rate is $28.85 an hour. This week they worked 46 hours.

1. Regular rate: no extras, so $28.85.
2. Overtime premium: half of that, $14.43.
3. Straight time on every hour worked: 46 x $28.85 = $1,327.10.
4. Premium on the 6 overtime hours: 6 x $14.43 = $86.58.
5. Week total: $1,413.68.

The shortcut most people use lands in the same place. 40 hours at $28.85 is $1,154.00, 6 hours at $43.28 is $259.68, and the two add to $1,413.68.

Pair that week with a normal 40 hour week and gross pay for the two weeks is $1,413.68 plus $1,154.00, against the usual $2,307.69 check. The hourly paycheck calculator runs both weeks at once.

Shift differentials, bonuses and double time

Now the same 46 hour week with two extras: a $2.00 an hour night differential on 16 of the hours, and a $50 attendance bonus the employer promised in advance.

Pay item	Amount
30 hours at $28.85	$865.50
16 night hours at $30.85	$493.60
Attendance bonus	$50.00
Total pay before the premium	$1,409.10
Regular rate ($1,409.10 divided by 46 hours)	$30.63
Premium (half of $30.63, times 6 hours)	$91.92
Week total	$1,501.02

Ignore the differential and the bonus and the premium comes out at $86.58 instead of $91.92. The worker is short $5.34 for one week, which is how most blended rate errors happen.

A bonus covering more than one week gets spread back over the weeks it was earned, and the premium is recalculated for each. Bonuses paid on their own check follow different tax rules, which the FAQ on whether bonuses are taxed differently explains.

Double time is not a federal requirement. Where you get it, it comes from state law, a union contract or company policy.

Salaried and still owed overtime

A salary does not cancel overtime. Three things have to line up for an employee to be exempt: pay on a salary basis, a salary at or above the federal threshold, and duties inside an exempt category such as executive, administrative, professional, outside sales or certain computer roles. The job title decides nothing. Fact Sheet 17A lists the tests, and the salary threshold has moved through rulemaking and court challenges, so take the current figure from there.

For a salaried nonexempt worker, divide the weekly salary by the hours it is meant to cover. A $60,000 salary is $1,153.85 a week, and if that covers 40 hours the regular rate is $28.85. The 46 hour week above owes the same $259.68 on top of the salary.

If the salary is understood to cover more than 40 hours, the regular rate is lower and the hours past 40 earn the half time premium only.

What an overtime week does to that paycheck’s withholding

Overtime paid with your regular wages is taxed as regular wages. There is no separate overtime tax rate, and the flat method used on some bonus checks does not apply here.

On the $259.68 of overtime: Social Security and Medicare take $19.86, federal withholding adds about $31 at this worker’s 12% bracket, and California income tax takes roughly $16, plus a small state disability deduction. Close to $190 of the $259.68 reaches the bank.

Withholding tables also assume every check looks like the one in front of them, so a heavy overtime week can be withheld as though you earn that much all year. The FAQ on whether overtime is taxed more covers that, and the California paycheck calculator shows the whole check.

One more wrinkle. The federal deduction for qualified overtime covers only the half time premium, $86.58 in this example, not the full $259.68. The guide on no tax on overtime and tips has the limits and the phase-out.

Check your own overtime week

Enter your hours, your rate and any differential in the free paycheck calculator on PayCalculatorUSA, and it works out the premium and the withholding for the state you pick. For the rest of the deductions on that check, see how to calculate take-home pay.