What is the federal overtime rule?

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, non-exempt employees must be paid at least 1.5 times their regular rate for every hour worked over 40 in a single workweek. There is no federal daily overtime and no federal double-time — those rules exist only in certain states.

What is the regular rate of pay?

The regular rate is total straight-time compensation divided by total hours worked. When an employee earns only an hourly wage it equals that wage. When nondiscretionary bonuses or commissions are added, those must be included, which raises the regular rate and therefore the overtime premium.

Why is the overtime premium half the rate, not 1.5 times?

When a bonus is spread across all hours, the straight-time portion of the overtime hours is already counted in total compensation. The extra owed is the half-time premium on the regular rate for each overtime hour. With no bonus this is mathematically identical to paying 1.5 times for hours over 40.

Does a salary make someone exempt from overtime?

Not by itself. Exemption requires both a salary above the federal threshold and qualifying executive, administrative, professional, or other duties. Many salaried workers are still non-exempt and owed overtime. This calculator assumes the employee is non-exempt.

Do state rules override this?

States can be stricter, never less protective. California, for example, adds daily overtime after 8 hours and double-time after 12. Where a state rule gives more pay, it applies instead of the federal minimum. Use a state-specific calculator if you work in such a state.

US Federal FLSA Overtime Calculator

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets the federal floor for overtime in the United States: non-exempt employees must receive at least one and a half times their regular rate for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek. This calculator applies that rule and, importantly, handles the bonus-adjusted regular rate that trips up a lot of simpler tools.

How it works

The calculation follows the FLSA regular-rate method:

straightTimePay = hourlyRate × hoursWorked + weeklyBonus
regularRate     = straightTimePay / hoursWorked
overtimeHours   = max(0, hoursWorked − 40)
overtimePremium = regularRate × 0.5 × overtimeHours
totalPay        = straightTimePay + overtimePremium

When there is no bonus, the regular rate equals the hourly rate and the result collapses to the familiar “1.5× for hours over 40.”

Example and notes

An employee works 46 hours at $18/hour with no bonus. Straight-time pay is $18 × 46 = $828. The 6 overtime hours earn a half-time premium of $18 × 0.5 × 6 = $54, for a total of $882 — the same as paying 40 × $18 plus 6 × $27.

Add a $100 nondiscretionary bonus and the regular rate rises to ($828 + $100) / 46 = $20.17, so the overtime premium grows to about $60.52. Notes: the FLSA has no daily or double-time component; treat the output as an estimate and check your state’s rules, which may be more generous.