Overtime Rate Calculator
Before you can price an overtime week, you need one number: the overtime rate itself, in dollars per hour. That rate is your regular rate times a multiplier, and the multiplier is where most confusion lives, because 1.5x, double time, and contract rates all produce different hourly prices for the same worker. This overtime rate calculator pins that price down first, then prices the week from it.
Quick Answer
At a $22 regular rate with a 1.5x multiplier, your overtime rate is $33.00 an hour. Eight overtime hours at that rate pay $264, and with $880 of regular pay for 40 hours the gross week is $1,144. The premium over the regular rate is $11.00 per overtime hour. Change the multiplier to 2 and the same week reprices to $44 an hour, $352 of overtime pay, and a $1,232 gross week.
- Quick Answer
- How the overtime rate is calculated
- The multiplier table: what each rate is worth at $22
- Overtime rate vs overtime pay: what is the difference?
- Finding your regular rate of pay
- State rules that can change the rate
- What most overtime calculators get wrong
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
- References
How the overtime rate is calculated
The overtime rate has exactly one step: multiply the regular rate by the multiplier. At $22 and 1.5x, that is $22 times 1.5, which is $33 an hour. Everything else on the page is bookkeeping around that price: regular pay is the regular rate times regular hours, overtime pay is the overtime rate times overtime hours, and the gross week is the two added together.
That simplicity is also the trap. The multiplication is trivial, so almost every error in overtime pay comes from the inputs, not the arithmetic. The most common is feeding the base wage in as the regular rate when shift differentials or nondiscretionary bonuses should be included. A worker whose base wage is $22 but whose straight-time earnings, differentials included, work out to $24 has an overtime rate of $36 at 1.5x, not $33, and loses $3 on every overtime hour if the lower figure is used. The second most common error is applying the multiplier to the whole week instead of only to the overtime hours, which overstates pay by a wide margin.
Use this page when the question is the rate itself: what am I paid per overtime hour, and what does that rate do to a week? Use the sibling overtime hours calculator when the question is the week as a whole at the standard rate: how much of the week is premium, what is the effective rate across all hours, and how large is the overtime share of pay. The sibling fixes the multiplier at 1.5x and adds premium, effective-rate, and share outputs this page does not carry. This page is the rate-first tool; that page is the week-first tool.
The multiplier table: what each rate is worth at $22
Multipliers are usually quoted as names, not numbers, which hides how large the gaps between them are. At a $22 regular rate, the full ladder looks like this, and the table is worth memorizing if you ever negotiate a premium rate.
| Multiplier | Name | Overtime rate | Premium per hour | 8 hours pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0x | Straight time | $22.00 | $0 | $176 |
| 1.25x | Time and a quarter | $27.50 | $5.50 | $220 |
| 1.5x | Time and a half | $33.00 | $11.00 | $264 |
| 2.0x | Double time | $44.00 | $22.00 | $352 |
| 2.5x | Double time and a half | $55.00 | $33.00 | $440 |
Notice that the premium per hour, the amount above the regular rate, is simply the overtime rate minus the regular rate. At 1.5x it is $11, at double time it is the full $22 again. That premium-per-hour line is the new output on this page: it is the figure to quote when you ask what an hour of overtime is worth beyond an ordinary hour.
Overtime rate vs overtime pay: what is the difference?
The rate is a price per hour. Overtime pay is what a block of hours at that price adds up to. At $33 an hour, the rate answers “what is each overtime hour worth”, and $264 answers “what did 8 of those hours pay”. Confusing the two produces the classic pay-stub argument in which a worker points at $264 and calls it their rate, or points at $33 and wonders why the week did not rise by only $33.
Keep the two apart when you audit a stub. First check the rate: divide the overtime earnings by the overtime hours and see whether the result matches your regular rate times the multiplier you are owed. Then check the hours: make sure the hours classified as overtime match the hours you actually worked past the trigger. A correct rate applied to too few hours, and a correct hour count at the wrong rate, both shortchange you, and they need different corrections.
Finding your regular rate of pay
For hourly workers, start with total straight-time earnings for the week and divide by total hours worked. That is the Department of Labor method, and it automatically folds in shift differentials and nondiscretionary bonuses. A week with $1,100 of straight-time earnings over 50 hours has a $22 regular rate, even if the printed base wage is lower.
For nonexempt salaried workers, the same division applies: weekly salary divided by the hours it was meant to cover gives the regular rate, and overtime is then priced from that rate. A fixed salary for a workweek longer than 40 hours does not discharge the overtime obligation; the Department of Labor gives exactly this example, with a $405 salary over 45 hours producing a $9 regular rate and a $4.50 half-time premium on the 5 overtime hours. The principle scales to any salary: divide first, then multiply by the overtime multiplier.
What does not belong in the regular rate matters almost as much. Discretionary bonuses, gifts, expense reimbursements, and payments for time not worked are generally excluded. If your employer adds a discretionary holiday gift into your regular rate, your overtime rate will be overstated, and if it leaves a promised production bonus out, the rate will be understated. When in doubt, ask payroll which earnings were included in the regular-rate calculation for that week, and check the answer against the Department of Labor fact sheet linked below.
State rules that can change the rate
Federal law sets a weekly floor: 1.5x past 40 hours for nonexempt workers. It does not set a daily floor, and it does not require double time. States can, and some do. California requires 1.5x after 8 hours in a day, double time after 12 hours in a day, and 1.5x for the first 8 hours on the seventh consecutive workday, with double time after that. A California worker on a 12-hour shift therefore earns two different overtime rates in one day, and no single-multiplier tool prices that day exactly.
Use this calculator for California weeks by splitting the day: run the 1.5x hours through the tool, then run the double-time hours separately at a 2x multiplier, and add the two overtime totals together. The regular pay line stays the same in both runs. Other states with daily rules, and union contracts with their own tiers, need the same split-and-add approach. A tool that offers one multiplier can price one tier at a time; it cannot price a tiered day in a single run, and any page that claims otherwise is hiding the split.
What most overtime calculators get wrong
Most competing tools in this space share three weaknesses. First, many lock the multiplier at 1.5x and offer no double-time option at all, so a worker on a holiday or a California long day cannot price their actual week. Second, many show only the week total and never headline the rate itself, which makes the tool useless for the most common use case: checking the overtime line on a pay stub. Third, many bury the regular-rate problem entirely, inviting the user to type in a base wage and never warning that differentials and bonuses belong in the rate.
This page fixes the first two directly: the multiplier is a free input, and the rate is the headline result, in large type, with the week total below it. The third is fixed in prose and in tooltips: every input label carries the regular-rate warning, and the regular-rate section above walks through the division method with a worked example. A calculator that gets the arithmetic right but the rate wrong is still a wrong calculator, and the rate is where the money is.
One more caution applies to every tool on this page and on competitors: these are gross figures. Overtime is taxed as ordinary income at your normal marginal rates, and withholding in a heavy week can look high because payroll annualizes that week. Do not treat the gross week total as take-home pay, and do not annualize one overtime week by multiplying by 52 unless your schedule genuinely repeats that week all year.
For the wider paycheck picture, a paycheck increase calculator shows what a raise does to the same rate, a per-check salary calculator converts salary across pay frequencies, and a night shift salary calculator prices the differentials that feed into the regular rate. Run those alongside this page before you negotiate a rate, a multiplier, or a shift pattern.
Frequently Asked Questions
Time and a half means 1.5 times your regular hourly rate. At $20 an hour, time and a half is $30 an hour. It is the minimum overtime rate federal law requires for nonexempt employees working past 40 hours in a week.
Under federal law, 1.5x is the minimum for hours past 40. Some states and union contracts require double time (2x) in specific cases, such as California after 12 hours in a single day. Your employer can always pay more than the legal minimum.
Often, yes. Being salaried does not automatically make you exempt. Nonexempt salaried employees are entitled to overtime; the salary is converted to an hourly regular rate first. Exemption depends on salary level and job duties under Department of Labor tests, not on the word salary in your contract.
Nondiscretionary bonuses, like production or attendance bonuses promised in advance, must be included in the regular rate, which raises your overtime rate. Purely discretionary bonuses, such as an unannounced holiday gift, do not. The Department of Labor explains the distinction in its bonuses fact sheet.
No. Overtime is taxed at your normal marginal rates; there is no special overtime tax. It can feel smaller because the extra income may push a paycheck into a higher withholding bracket for that pay period. The IRS covers supplemental withholding in Publication 15.
California adds daily rules on top of the federal weekly rule: 1.5x after 8 hours in a day, double time after 12 hours, and 1.5x for the first 8 hours on the seventh consecutive workday (double time after that). See the California wage order linked in References for the full breakdown.
The overtime rate is the per-hour price ($33.00 an hour in our example). Overtime pay is the total earned at that rate ($264 for 8 hours). To audit a paycheck, divide overtime earnings by overtime hours to check the rate, then check that the overtime hour count itself is right.
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References
- California Wage Order: Hours and Days of Work (daily overtime and double time), California Department of Industrial Relations.
- Understanding the new no-tax on overtime deduction under Code Section 225, Baker Tilly.
Results are gross-pay estimates for planning and pay-stub checks. They are not legal, tax, or payroll advice; exemption status and state rules control any individual week.