How to Calculate Overtime Pay: Federal and California Rules

The short answer

Under federal law, overtime is every hour over 40 in a workweek, paid at at least 1.5 times your regular rate. For an hourly worker with no extras, that is simply:

Overtime pay = overtime hours × hourly rate × 1.5

At $20 an hour, 46 hours in a week is 40 × $20 = $800 of regular pay plus 6 × $30 = $180 of overtime, for $980 before taxes.

Two things make real paychecks harder than that. First, the “regular rate” is not always your base rate: non-discretionary bonuses push it up. Second, some states, California most of all, add daily overtime and double time on top of the federal weekly rule. This guide covers both with worked numbers.

The federal rule in four points

The Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet #23 sets out how the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) works for non-exempt employees:

• The trigger is 40 hours in a workweek. Federal law has no daily overtime. Ten hours on Monday is not overtime by itself if the week stays at 40.
• The workweek is fixed. The DOL defines it as a fixed, regularly recurring period of 168 hours, seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It does not have to start on Monday, but it cannot move around.
• No averaging. Fact Sheet #23 says averaging hours over two or more weeks is not permitted. A 50-hour week followed by a 30-hour week still owes 10 hours of overtime for the first week, even though the two weeks average 40.
• Unauthorized overtime still counts. If your employer says overtime must be approved in advance and you work it anyway, the DOL says that rule does not cancel your right to be paid for hours you actually worked.

Weekend, holiday and night work are not overtime “as such” under federal law. Premium pay for those comes from your contract or company policy, not the FLSA.

Step 1: Find your regular rate

Overtime is 1.5 times the regular rate, and the regular rate is not always the number on your offer letter. The DOL’s Fact Sheet #56A says all compensation for hours worked, services rendered or performance must be included, then divided by the hours worked that week.

Some payments can be left out. Fact Sheet #56A lists discretionary bonuses (where both the decision to pay and the amount are up to the employer at or near the end of the period), gifts on special occasions, pay for vacation, holidays or sick days, and reimbursed business expenses, among others.

Non-discretionary bonuses must be included. Fact Sheet #56C gives examples: production bonuses based on a set formula, bonuses for quality and accuracy, attendance bonuses, safety bonuses, and bonuses announced to get employees to work more efficiently. If a bonus was promised in advance for hitting a target, it almost certainly belongs in the regular rate.

Step 2: Add the bonus the DOL way

Fact Sheet #56C works a weekly bonus in three steps. The straight-time part of every hour, including the overtime hours, is already paid, so only an extra half is added for the overtime hours.

Worked example. You earn $18.00 an hour, work 45 hours, and earn a $90 attendance bonus that week.

1. Straight-time pay: 45 × $18.00 = $810.00. Add the bonus: $810.00 + $90.00 = $900.00.
2. Regular rate: $900.00 ÷ 45 hours = $20.00 an hour.
3. Overtime premium: half of $20.00 is $10.00, times 5 overtime hours = $50.00.

Total pay: $900.00 + $50.00 = $950.00.

If payroll ignored the bonus and paid 40 × $18.00 + 5 × $27.00 + $90.00, you would get $945.00. The $5 gap looks small, but it repeats every week the bonus is paid, and it is the most common reason an overtime line on a pay stub looks “a bit off.”

California: daily overtime and double time

California’s Labor Commissioner (DLSE) sets stricter default rules. According to its overtime FAQ, non-exempt employees get:

Hours worked	California default	Federal FLSA
Over 8 in a workday, up to 12	1.5×	No premium
Over 12 in a workday	2×	No premium
Over 40 regular hours in a workweek	1.5×	1.5× over 40 hours
7th consecutive day in a workweek, first 8 hours	1.5×	No premium
7th consecutive day, over 8 hours	2×	No premium

The phrase that matters is “40 regular hours.” The DLSE’s Form 55 instructions describe weekly overtime as hours in excess of 40 regular hours in a workweek. So you first split each day into regular, overtime and double-time hours, then apply the weekly rule only to the regular hours. An hour that was already paid as daily overtime is not counted again.

Worked example: a 50-hour California week

You earn $24.00 an hour and work five days: 10, 10, 13, 8 and 9 hours.

Day	Hours	Regular	Overtime (1.5×)	Double time (2×)
1	10	8	2	0
2	10	8	2	0
3	13	8	4	1
4	8	8	0	0
5	9	8	1	0
Week	50	40	9	1

Day 3 is the interesting one: hours 9 through 12 are overtime and hour 13 is double time. The regular hours add up to exactly 40, so no extra weekly overtime is due.

• Regular: 40 × $24.00 = $960.00
• Overtime: 9 × $36.00 = $324.00
• Double time: 1 × $48.00 = $48.00
• Total: $1,332.00

Under the federal rule alone, the same 50 hours would be 40 regular and 10 overtime: $960.00 + $360.00 = $1,320.00. California’s daily rules are worth $12 more here, all from the long day.

The seventh-day rule only applies when you work all seven days of the same workweek. Seven days in a row that straddle two workweeks do not trigger it.

The DLSE also notes exceptions: alternative workweek schedules, some industries and exempt employees follow different rules. Several other states have their own overtime laws too, so check your state labor department if you are not in California.

Turning a time card into hours

Overtime is only as accurate as the hours behind it. A few points that trip people up:

• Convert minutes to decimals by dividing by 60. 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75 hours, not 7.45.
• Only real meal breaks come off. The DOL’s Fact Sheet #22 says rest breaks of usually 20 minutes or less must be counted as hours worked, while bona fide meal periods, typically 30 minutes or more, generally need not be paid.
• Use the employer’s workweek, not the calendar week. If the workweek runs Wednesday to Tuesday, total those seven days, not Monday to Sunday.

The time card calculator totals clock-in and clock-out times with breaks, including shifts that cross midnight, and flags hours over your weekly threshold.

Common mistakes

• Using the base rate when a bonus was paid. Production, attendance and safety bonuses raise the regular rate for every overtime hour in that week.
• Averaging two weeks. Each workweek stands alone. A short week does not cancel a long one.
• Counting California daily overtime twice. Weekly overtime in California applies to regular hours only.
• Assuming “salaried” means no overtime. Exemption depends on salary level and job duties, not on being paid a salary. A salaried non-exempt employee is still owed overtime.

When to talk to someone

If your pay stub does not match your own calculation and your payroll team cannot explain it, ask in writing how the regular rate and overtime hours were worked out. The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division and state labor departments handle wage questions, and the DLSE suggests contacting one of its offices if you are unsure which California rule applies to you. Get help sooner if you are being paid a flat amount for long weeks, if bonuses never seem to affect your overtime, or if you were told overtime is “not allowed” but you worked it anyway.

To check your own week, the overtime calculator handles any split of regular, overtime and double-time hours, and has a California mode that splits each day automatically.

This is general information about U.S. wage rules, not legal advice. Union contracts, state law and your specific job can change the answer.