Overtime calculator

$
hrs
hrs
x
Gross pay for the period
$1,248

$960 base and $288 overtime

Overtime rate$36.00
Hours48
Effective an hour$26.00
$24.64$26.42$28.19051015202530base $24.008 hrs: $26.00$24.64$26.42$28.190102030base $24.008 hrs: $26.00

What every hour averages out at as premium hours pile up. It climbs toward the multiplied rate and never reaches it, because the base hours stay base hours.

40 hours at $24.00 plus 8 at 1.50x pays $1,248: $960 base and $288 of overtime. Across all 48 hours that is an effective $26.00 an hour, $2.00 above the base rate.

How to use this, and the parts people get wrong
  • The multiplier and the weekly threshold are inputs, because the rule differs by country and contract. Time and a half after forty hours is the US default.
  • Enter your base hourly rate; the tool splits the week into normal and overtime hours itself.
  • If you are salaried, divide by your contracted hours to get the base rate first.

Where the cheque comes from

Those 8 hours are 17% of the time worked and 23% of the pay. That gap is the multiplier doing its job, and it is why the effective rate rises with every extra hour.

$26.00an hour across every hour worked
$288of it from the premium hours
23%of the cheque, from 17% of the hours

The same week at every overtime level

What one more premium hour is worth, and what it does to the average.

OT hrsOvertimeTotalAn hour
0$0$960$24.00
2$72$1,032$24.57
4$144$1,104$25.09
6$216$1,176$25.57
8$288$1,248$26.00
10$360$1,320$26.40
12$432$1,392$26.77
16$576$1,536$27.43
20$720$1,680$28.00
25$900$1,860$28.62
30$1,080$2,040$29.14

Questions people ask

How do I calculate overtime pay?
Multiply the base rate by the overtime multiple, then by the premium hours, and add the base hours at the base rate. Here $24.00 times 1.50 is $36.00 an hour for 8 hours, so $288 of overtime on top of $960 of base pay.
What is time and a half?
A multiplier of 1.5: every premium hour pays one and a half times the base rate. On $24.00 that is $36.00 an hour. Double time is a multiplier of 2.
Is 1.5 times after 40 hours a universal rule?
No. That is the US federal rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and it is one rule among many. California adds double time past twelve hours in a day; several European contracts pay 1.25; some agreements count daily hours rather than weekly. The multiplier and the base hours are inputs here for exactly that reason.
What is my effective hourly rate?
Total pay divided by total hours: $26.00 here. It sits between the base rate and the multiplied rate, and climbs toward the multiplied rate as premium hours grow without ever reaching it, because the base hours never stop being base hours.
Is overtime taxed at a higher rate?
The pay is taxed the same way any other pay is, but a bigger cheque can push part of it into a higher band, which is why a payslip can feel as though overtime was singled out. Tax is national and is not applied on this page.

Method and sources

  • 29 USC 207 (Fair Labor Standards Act)The US federal rule of one and a half times over forty hours a week, cited as one rule among many rather than as the default
  • Standard wage arithmeticHours times rate, premium hours times the multiple
The calculation

Base hours times the base rate, plus premium hours times the base rate times the multiplier. The effective rate is the total divided by every hour worked, base and premium together. Nothing is assumed about which hours count as premium: you set the threshold and the multiple.

What these figures do not cover
  • Tax, national insurance and deductions are not applied; this is gross pay.
  • A single multiplier is applied to all premium hours. Rules with a second tier - double time past a further threshold - need a second run.
  • Shift premiums, unsocial-hours uplifts and allowances sit outside this arithmetic.

Last updated August 2026.

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