Double Time Calculator

What double time pays

Double time is 2 times your regular hourly rate. At $20 an hour, double time is $40 an hour. Time and a half, the more common overtime rate, is $30 at the same wage, so a double-time hour is worth $10 more than an overtime hour.

Federal law does not require double time at all. The Fair Labor Standards Act sets the overtime floor at 1.5 times the regular rate for hours past 40 in a workweek, and that is the whole federal rule. The US Department of Labor overtime page spells it out. Double time comes from state law, union contracts, or a company policy that chooses to pay it.

The best-known source is California. Under California's overtime rules, a nonexempt employee earns 1.5 times the regular rate for hours 9 through 12 in a workday, and 2 times the regular rate for every hour past 12. The same 2x rate applies to hours past 8 on the seventh consecutive day of a workweek. No other state requires double time, so outside California you see it mostly in union contracts, which often pay 2x on Sundays and holidays.

Two words decide your check. The regular rate is your average hourly pay for the week, including nondiscretionary bonuses and shift differentials, not just your base wage. The workweek is a fixed 168-hour period, so hours do not average out across a month. Daily thresholds are measured per day, which means a 13-hour Tuesday pays 1 hour at double time even if you only worked 35 hours that week.

Worked example: 4 double-time hours at $20 an hour

These are the calculator's default numbers: $20 an hour, 40 hours at straight time, and 4 hours at double time.

• Straight-time rate: $20.00
• Time-and-a-half rate: $30.00
• Double-time rate: $40.00
• Straight-time pay: 40 x $20.00 = $800.00
• Double-time pay: 4 x $40.00 = $160.00
• Total gross pay: $960.00
• Effective rate across 44 hours: $21.82 an hour

Those 4 double-time hours added $80 more than the same hours at time and a half. Look at the effective rate, though. Four extra hours at double time lifted the whole week by 20%, not by 100%, because the premium only applies to the last 4 hours. If the same 44 hours had been paid at straight time the week would be $880, so the double-time rule added $80 in total.

Worked example: a 14-hour day in California

A California worker at $18 an hour puts in a 14-hour Tuesday. The day splits three ways: hours 1 to 8 at straight time, hours 9 to 12 at time and a half, and hours 13 and 14 at double time.

• 8 hours x $18.00 = $144.00
• 4 hours x $27.00 = $108.00
• 2 hours x $36.00 = $72.00
• Day total: $324.00 for 14 hours, an effective $23.14 an hour

Paid entirely at straight time, those 14 hours would come to $252, so the overtime rules added $72. Now suppose that Tuesday was also the seventh consecutive day of the workweek. California pays 1.5x for the first 8 hours on the seventh day and 2x after that, and the employee collects whichever rule pays more for each hour. Keep daily hours in a separate column from the weekly total, because a payroll system built around the federal 40-hour week will miss every one of these daily thresholds.

Double-time rates at a glance

Double-time pay at common wages, plus a full 14-hour California day broken into straight time, time and a half, and double time:

The 14-hour column uses the California split of 8 hours straight, 4 hours at 1.5x, and 2 hours at 2x. All figures are gross pay before tax. Overtime is taxed as ordinary income, so a big double-time week can push you into a higher withholding bracket and make the paycheck look smaller than the math suggests.

Who has to pay double time

Double time is a contract term far more often than a legal one. Here is where it shows up:

• California. Required after 12 hours in a workday and after 8 hours on the seventh consecutive workday. This is the only state with a double-time mandate.
• Union contracts. Many trade contracts pay 2x on the seventh day, on Sundays, and on holidays, and some pay 2x for call-outs or shift extensions.
• Company policy. Some employers pay double time on major holidays or for emergency call-ins to keep people on the schedule.
• Federal work. The federal 40-hour rule stops at 1.5x. There is no federal double-time requirement.

A handful of other states require daily overtime at 1.5x after 8 or 12 hours, including Alaska, Nevada, and Colorado, but they stop short of 2x. If you are outside California and not in a union, your double-time hours almost certainly come from a written policy, so ask to see it.

How double time stacks with time and a half

When a daily rule and a weekly rule both apply, you do not add them. You use the rule that pays more for each hour. Take a California employee who works five 9-hour days, 45 hours total, at $20 an hour. Each day has 1 hour past 8, so 5 daily overtime hours at 1.5x. The week also has 5 hours past 40. Those are the same hours, counted once, at $30 each. Overtime pay is $150 on top of $900 of straight time, for $1,050.

Double time works the same way. If an hour is already paid at 2x because it was the 13th hour of the day, that hour satisfies the weekly 40-hour test as well, and it is not paid a second time. The calculator above adds the three buckets you enter and does not double count, so put each hour in exactly one bucket: straight time, time and a half, or double time.

Tracking hours so you get paid

Double-time pay depends on hours, and hours are the part of the record that goes missing. Keep your own log with a date, a start time, an end time, and the length of any meal break. That single sheet of paper is what reconstructs a year of underpayment if payroll gets it wrong.

Wage claims under the FLSA can usually recover two years of back pay, or three if the employer's violation was willful. In California, the statute of limitations is generally three years for unpaid overtime, and the state adds penalties on top. The federal Wage and Hour Division takes complaints directly and does not charge a filing fee.

Two records are worth pulling before you file. Your pay stubs, which show what you were paid and for how many hours, and your own daily log, which shows what you worked. When those two disagree, the gap is the claim. Note that paid holidays and vacation do not count as hours worked, so a week with 32 worked hours and 8 holiday hours owes no federal overtime.