FLSA Overtime

What this page is

FLSA overtime, as described by the U.S. Department of Labor, is the federal baseline these calculators copy when they default to 40 hours and a 1.5 multiplier. The Fair Labor Standards Act is enforced by the Department’s Wage and Hour Division. The two links at the bottom of this page — the overtime topic page and Fact Sheet #23 — are the public sources. Read those when a sentence here is not enough. This FLSA overtime page does not replace them, and it does not replace a lawyer, a union representative, or the Wage and Hour Division.

The workweek and the 40-hour line

A workweek is a fixed, regularly recurring stretch of 168 hours: seven consecutive 24-hour periods. The employer sets when it starts. It does not have to match the calendar week, and it is not a pay period by itself. Overtime under this federal pattern looks at hours worked inside that workweek. Hours worked over 40 are the overtime hours. The overtime calculator and the weekly overtime calculator both implement that split, and only that split, unless you change the threshold.

The rate on those hours is not less than 1.5 times the employee’s regular rate of pay. “Time and a half” is that 1.5× rate for the overtime hour, not a half-time bonus stacked on an hour that was also paid in full at straight time. The time and a half calculator shows both the full 1.5× amount and the half inside it. The how to calculate overtime page writes the same steps with a $20, 45-hour example that comes to $950 gross.

What the federal rule does not require

The FLSA does not, by itself, require overtime after eight hours in a day, and it does not require double time. Extra pay for weekend or night work is not an FLSA overtime duty unless those hours also push the workweek over 40 or a separate law or agreement says so. Some states are stricter. Daily overtime and double time show up in state law and in contracts. This site does not ship a 50-state engine. The double time calculator will price hours at 2× only when you tell it those hours are double-time hours.

Paid time off is often not “hours worked,” even when it is paid. A generous employer policy can count it anyway. The calculators count the hours you type. They do not decide which hours on a real timesheet were hours worked.

The regular rate, and exemptions

The regular rate is not always the sticker hourly wage. Certain bonuses, commissions, and shift differentials can belong in it. Two rates in one week generally need a weighted average before the half-time premium is applied. None of the tools on this site compute that weighted rate. They multiply the single rate you enter.

Some employees are exempt from FLSA overtime if they meet duties tests and, where the exemption requires it, the way they are paid. Job titles do not decide it. A salary divided by 2,080 on the salary to hourly calculator is a schedule conversion, not an exemption test, and this page will not quote a salary threshold that the Department can change. If you need to know whether a job is exempt, use the Department of Labor materials or ask someone qualified to look at the actual duties and pay.

How the calculators use this summary

Defaults are a 40-hour threshold and a 1.5 multiplier, one rate, no tax, no state daily rule, and no double time until you opt in. The numbers are estimates for personal reference. They are not a statement that an employer is in compliance, and they are not a demand for wages. The formulas and the rest of the limits are on assumptions and formulas. Clock time still has to become decimal hours before it is multiplied: the hours to decimal calculator is there for 8:30 → 8.50.

• U.S. Department of Labor — Overtime Pay (opens in a new tab)
• DOL Fact Sheet #23: Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA (opens in a new tab)