Time Card Calculator

How weekly overtime works in the US

The federal rule is simple. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, covered employees who are not exempt get one and a half times their regular rate for every hour worked past 40 in a workweek. A workweek is any fixed, repeating 168-hour period your employer chooses, it does not have to start on Monday, and it does not have to match the calendar week.

• Regular rate: your normal hourly rate, including most bonuses and shift differentials, not just your base wage.
• Overtime rate: regular rate × 1.5. At $18 an hour that is $27.
• Threshold: 40 hours in the workweek. Not 40 hours on average, not 80 in two weeks.

The US Department of Labor's overtime page is the authoritative summary, and it is worth reading if your pay stub ever looks short. This calculator applies the same rule: it totals your seven days, pays the first 40 hours at your regular rate, and pays the rest at your rate times the multiplier you choose.

Worked example: 47.5 hours at $18 an hour

A time card of 8, 8.5, 9, 8, 8, 6 and 0 hours adds up to 47.5 hours at $18 an hour.

• Total hours: 47.5
• Regular hours: 40 × $18 = $720.00
• Overtime hours: 7.5 × $27 = $202.50
• Gross pay: $922.50
• Effective hourly rate: $922.50 ÷ 47.5 = $19.42

That last line is the one worth internalizing. Working 18.75% more hours than a standard week earned 15.3% more money, the overtime premium is real but it does not compound the way people assume. Annualized, that week repeated 52 times is $47,970 a year rather than the $37,440 you would get for 40 hours at $18.

Now compare the same 47.5 hours spread differently: 10, 10, 10, 10, 7.5, 0, 0. The total is identical and so is the pay, because federal law only cares about the weekly total. In California the answer changes, which is covered below.

Worked example: two weeks at $15 an hour, one busy

Pay periods are usually two weeks, and most overtime questions come from a busy week next to a normal one. At $15 an hour:

• Week 1 (40 hours): 40 × $15 = $600, no overtime.
• Week 2 (50 hours): 40 × $15 = $600, plus 10 × $22.50 = $225, so $825.
• Two-week gross: $600 + $825 = $1,425.

Straight time for those same 90 hours would be $1,350, so the overtime premium is worth $75. Note what does not happen: the 30-hour week does not offset the 50-hour week. Averaging across a pay period is not allowed for most employers, so a 30-hour week and a 50-hour week pay the same as two 40-hour weeks plus 10 overtime hours, which is exactly what the calculator shows if you run each week separately.

Where averaging does exist is the 8/80 rule for hospitals and nursing homes, which allows overtime after 8 hours in a day or 80 hours in 14 days. If you work in healthcare, that rule may apply to you instead of the standard 40-hour threshold.

Gross pay at a glance

Weekly gross pay with overtime at 1.5× after 40 hours. Use it to sanity-check a pay stub before you trust it:

The pattern to notice is that each extra 5 hours adds $7.50 × 5 = $37.50 at $15 an hour, because the marginal hours are all paid at the premium rate. At $25 an hour each extra 5 hours adds $62.50. That is why an extra Saturday shift feels worth much more at a higher base rate than it does at a lower one, and why employers cap hours once the premium kicks in.

One trap the table exposes: a salaried job advertised as "$1,000 a week" and an hourly job at $25 for 40 hours are the same money, but only the hourly job pays more when the hours stretch. The salary stays at $1,000 whether you work 40 hours or 55, which is worth remembering when you compare offers.

State rules that change the math

Federal law is the floor, not the ceiling. States can require more, and several do:

• California: overtime after 8 hours in a day at 1.5×, double time after 12 hours in a day, and double time after 8 hours on the seventh consecutive day. A 4×10 schedule still triggers overtime on the ninth and tenth hour of each day.
• Alaska, Nevada and Colorado also have daily overtime rules in some form, usually after 8 or 12 hours.
• Reporting time pay: in several states, if you show up for a shift and are sent home, you are owed a minimum of 2 to 4 hours at your regular rate.
• Seventh-day rules: a few states require premium pay for working a seventh consecutive day even below 40 hours.

The DOL state labor law pages link to each state's rules, and your state labor office is the place to confirm a dispute. The calculator above lets you change the overtime threshold and multiplier so you can model a daily-rule state: for a single 10-hour day in California, set the threshold to 8 and the multiplier to 1.5.

From gross pay to what lands in your account

Everything on this page is gross pay, the number before deductions. Four things come out of a typical US paycheck:

• FICA: 7.65% of gross for Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%). Your employer pays a matching 7.65% that never appears on your stub.
• Federal income tax: withheld according to your W-4. At around $922 a week a single filer with no dependents typically sees roughly 10 to 14% withheld.
• State income tax: zero in nine states, up to about 10% in the highest-tax states.
• Benefits: health premiums, 401(k) contributions, union dues and garnishments.

Run the $922.50 example through the first two: FICA is $70.57 and federal withholding at a rough 12% is about $110.70, which leaves about $740 before state tax and benefits. The IRS small business and self-employed tax center has the withholding tables, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data shows what your occupation typically pays in your metro area if you want to check whether you are being paid the going rate.

One caution: this is an illustration of how withholding works, not tax advice. Your actual withholding depends on your W-4, your filing status and your state, and only your payroll department or a tax professional can tell you your real number.