FREE CALCULATOR · MONEY
A 50-hour week at $20 an hour is not $1,000 — it is $1,100. Price your regular hours and your overtime hours separately at time-and-a-half, double time, or your own rate, and see exactly what extra time is worth.
Enter your wage and hours — the bars split your week into regular pay in teal and overtime in amber, so you can see the premium doing its work.
Overtime pay has three moving parts: your normal hourly rate, the number of overtime hours, and the multiplier that turns the rate into a premium. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, hours past 40 in a workweek must be paid at no less than time-and-a-half — but some employers pay double time, some states start overtime after 8 hours in a day, and some contracts set their own rules. The calculator above accepts any multiplier so it works for all of them.
The 1.5× multiplier is the legal floor for non-exempt employees in the United States, not a ceiling. Switch to the custom-rate mode above if your employer pays something different — union contracts and state laws sometimes do.
Regular pay: $20 × 40 hours = $800. Overtime rate: $20 × 1.5 = $30 an hour. Overtime pay: $30 × 10 hours = $300. Total: $800 + $300 = $1,100 a week. The ten overtime hours are only 20% more time than the 40 regular hours, but because of the premium they contribute about 27% of the week's pay — that gap is exactly why overtime is such a powerful lever.
Under federal law, yes: non-exempt employees earn overtime for hours worked past 40 in a single workweek. But several states add a daily trigger — in California, for example, overtime also starts after 8 hours in a day, and double time after 12. Check your state rules; the calculator handles any of them once you enter the qualifying hours.
Time-and-a-half is 1.5× your normal rate; double time is 2×. On $20 an hour, an overtime hour pays $30 at time-and-a-half and $40 at double time. Double time is not a federal requirement — it usually comes from employer policy, union contracts, or state law covering very long days.
Not automatically. No federal law requires premium pay for holidays — holiday premiums are employer policy, union contracts, or sometimes state law. Many employers pay 1.5×, some pay 2×, and some add a flat 8 hours of holiday pay instead. Ask how your employer handles it, then run the numbers with the right multiplier.
No. Federal overtime is based on hours actually worked — paid time off like vacation, holidays, and sick leave does not count toward the 40. Work 32 hours and take 8 hours of vacation in one week, and legally you have zero overtime hours.
No, but it looks that way. A bigger check can trigger higher withholding for that one pay period, which makes overtime feel heavily taxed — but withholding is just an estimate. Only the dollars above each tax-bracket line are taxed at the higher rate, and over-withheld money comes back at tax time. The premium still leaves you ahead.
An IRS clarification in 2026 created a federal deduction — but it is narrower than the slogan. Only the premium half of overtime pay qualifies: on a $30 overtime hour with a $20 base rate, just the $10 premium is deductible, not the full $30. It is capped at about $12,500 a year for single filers and $25,000 for joint filers, and phases out above $150,000/$300,000 of MAGI. Social Security, Medicare, and state taxes still apply to all of it. Treat this as a timely FYI, not tax advice — the rules may still be evolving.
Usually not. In the private sector, federal law requires cash for overtime — comp time (time off later) cannot be substituted. Public employers and a few state-specific arrangements can allow it, normally only with a written agreement. When in doubt, you are owed the pay.
Learn the method: the free how to calculate overtime pay guide walks through the full formula, worked examples, holiday and bonus rules, and the 2026 tax note — step by step.