Free Payroll Tool

Overtime Pay Calculator

Hourly Rate

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Total Hours Worked

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Standard Weekly Hours

Overtime Multiplier

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Currency

Pay Breakdown

What Is Overtime Pay?

Overtime pay is additional compensation an employee earns for working beyond a defined threshold of standard hours, whether that threshold is measured daily, weekly, or both. Rather than being paid the same flat rate for every hour, overtime hours are compensated at an elevated rate — recognizing the extra time, fatigue, and disruption to personal life that comes with working beyond a normal schedule. Overtime rules exist for two main reasons: to fairly compensate employees for extra hours, and to discourage employers from relying too heavily on excessive hours instead of hiring additional staff.

How Does Overtime Pay Work?

Every employee has a baseline schedule they're expected to work before any overtime rate kicks in — commonly 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week. Every hour worked up to this threshold is paid at the standard hourly rate, while hours beyond it shift into overtime territory and are paid at a higher multiplier.

How that threshold is measured depends on whether overtime is tracked weekly or daily. Weekly overtime looks at the total hours worked across an entire workweek, regardless of how they're distributed across individual days — if the threshold is 40 hours and an employee works 48, the 8 hours beyond it are paid at the overtime rate, even if no single day involved an unusually long shift. Daily overtime instead applies the overtime rate to any hours worked beyond a set daily threshold — often 8, 10, or 12 hours — independent of total weekly hours, so a single 12-hour shift could trigger overtime pay for that day even if the employee's weekly total stays under 40.

What Is Time and a Half?

Time-and-a-half is the most common overtime rate, equal to 1.5 times an employee's regular hourly rate. If a worker earns $20 per hour, their time-and-a-half overtime rate is $30 per hour. This rate typically applies to hours worked beyond the standard threshold, whether that's 40 hours in a week or 8 hours in a day, depending on the applicable rules. Some employers and jurisdictions go further with double time — twice the regular hourly rate — generally reserved for more extreme circumstances such as hours worked on a public holiday, hours beyond a very long shift, or hours that exceed a second, higher threshold after time-and-a-half has already applied.

Formulas for Overtime Pay

The math behind every calculation this tool performs.

Regular Pay

Regular Pay = Hourly Rate × Regular Hours

Overtime Hours

Overtime Hours = Total Hours − Standard Hours

Overtime Pay

Overtime Pay = Hourly Rate × OT Multiplier × OT Hours

Double Time Pay

Double Time Pay = Hourly Rate × DT Multiplier × DT Hours

Gross Pay

Gross Pay = Regular Pay + Overtime Pay + Double Time Pay

Effective Hourly Rate

Effective Rate = Gross Pay ÷ Total Hours Worked

Hourly Rate — your base pay for one hour of regular, non-overtime work.

Standard Hours — the threshold (e.g. 40/week or 8/day) before overtime begins.

OT Multiplier — the overtime rate multiplier, commonly 1.25×, 1.5× or a custom value.

DT Multiplier — the double-time rate multiplier, commonly 2× or 2.5×.

How to Calculate Overtime Pay?

Four steps take you from a standard hours threshold to a full gross pay figure.

Find Your Overtime Hours

Subtract your standard hours threshold (e.g. 40/week or 8/day) from your total hours worked. Anything above the threshold counts as overtime.

Calculate Regular Pay

Multiply your hourly rate by your regular hours (the hours worked up to the threshold, not beyond it).

Calculate Overtime Pay

Multiply your hourly rate by your overtime multiplier (commonly 1.5×) and by your overtime hours.

Add for Gross Pay

Add regular pay and overtime pay (and double-time pay, if applicable) together to get your total gross pay for the period.

Example — $25/hour, 48 hours worked, 40 standard hours, 1.5× multiplier

Overtime Hours = 48 − 40 = 8 hrs Regular Pay = 25 × 40 = $1,000.00 Overtime Pay = 25 × 1.5 × 8 = $300.00 Gross Pay = 1,000 + 300 = $1,300.00

Working 8 hours of weekly overtime at time-and-a-half adds $300 on top of a $1,000 base, for a gross pay of $1,300.

Exemptions From Overtime Pay

Not every employee is entitled to overtime pay. Most overtime laws — including the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) — divide employees into two broad categories: non-exempt employees, who must be paid overtime for hours worked beyond the standard threshold, and exempt employees, who are excluded from overtime requirements regardless of how many hours they work. Exemption typically depends on job duties, level of responsibility, and how the employee is paid (salary vs. hourly), rather than job title alone. Common exempt categories include executive, administrative, and professional employees, along with certain outside sales roles and some computer-related occupations, though the exact categories and thresholds vary by country and jurisdiction.

Because exemption rules differ so much by location and are updated periodically, this calculator treats every entry as non-exempt by default and estimates overtime based on the multipliers and thresholds you enter. It isn't a substitute for confirming your actual exemption status with an employer, payroll department, or official labor authority.

Exempt Employees — Formal Requirements

Under the U.S. FLSA, most exemptions require passing three separate tests.

Salary Basis Test — the employee must be paid a fixed, predetermined salary that doesn't fluctuate based on the quality or quantity of work performed in a given week.

Salary Level Test — the employee's salary must meet or exceed a minimum threshold set by law, which is periodically updated and should be checked against current official guidance rather than assumed.

Duties Test — the employee's actual job duties must primarily involve executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, or certain computer-related work, as defined by the applicable regulations — job title alone does not determine exemption.

An employee must meet all three conditions to be properly classified as exempt — failing any one of them generally means the employee is non-exempt and entitled to overtime pay. Because these thresholds and duty definitions change over time and vary by country, always confirm current classification requirements with an official labor authority or qualified HR/legal professional rather than relying on a general guide.

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