Article — Time and a Half Calculator
Time and a Half Calculator: FLSA Overtime Pay (1.5×)
Time and a half means 1.5× your regular hourly rate. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, non-exempt employees must receive at least 1.5× their regular rate for every hour worked over 40 in a workweek. A worker earning $20/hour gets $30/hour for overtime hours.
The rule is simple in form and complicated in practice. The 1.5× multiplier is fixed. What counts as "regular rate," who counts as non-exempt, what counts as a "workweek," and which state rules override the federal floor — all of those vary. The calculator above gives you the weekly math instantly. This article covers the legal context behind the number.
What is time and a half?
Time and a half is the legal minimum overtime premium under federal US labor law. The calculation is base rate × 1.5. The result is the per-hour rate the employer must pay for hours worked above the weekly overtime threshold, which is 40 hours for almost all non-exempt jobs covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The premium applies to the hours, not the day. If you work 45 hours Monday through Friday and 0 hours on the weekend, the last 5 hours of the week are at time and a half. If you work 8 hours every day Monday through Saturday (48 hours), the last 8 hours are at time and a half. Under federal law there is no extra premium for working on a weekend or a holiday — only for crossing the 40-hour threshold.
FLSA was signed into law on June 25, 1938. The original overtime threshold was 44 hours per week. Congress reduced it to 42 hours in 1939 and to 40 hours in 1940. The 40-hour, 1.5× rule has been federal law for 85 years.
How to calculate time and a half
Three steps. First, multiply your base hourly rate by 1.5 to get the overtime rate. Second, split your weekly hours into regular hours (up to 40) and overtime hours (above 40). Third, compute total pay as (regular hours × base rate) + (overtime hours × overtime rate).
$15/hr base 40 × $15 + 8 × $22.50 = $780$18/hr base 40 × $18 + 8 × $27 = $936$20/hr base 40 × $20 + 8 × $30 = $1,040$25/hr base 40 × $25 + 8 × $37.50 = $1,300$30/hr base 40 × $30 + 8 × $45 = $1,560The "regular rate" in the formula is not always the same as the base hourly rate. FLSA defines regular rate to include nondiscretionary bonuses, shift differentials, and most commissions earned during the workweek. Hourly workers without bonuses use straight hourly rate. Workers with production bonuses or piece-rate pay need a different regular-rate calculation that distributes the bonus across all hours worked.
The FLSA time-and-a-half rule
29 U.S. Code §207(a)(1), the core overtime section of FLSA, requires every covered employer to pay each non-exempt employee at least one and one-half times their regular rate for hours worked above 40 in a single workweek. The workweek is defined as any fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods. The employer picks when the workweek starts (most pick Monday 12:00 AM); it does not have to align with the calendar week.
- Overtime threshold: 40 hours per workweek (federal)
- Multiplier: minimum 1.5× (employer can offer more, never less)
- Who is covered: non-exempt employees of FLSA-covered enterprises
- Workweek length: 168 consecutive hours, fixed by employer
- Comp time in lieu of OT: not allowed in private sector
- Holiday or weekend premium: not federally required
- Daily overtime: not federally required (some states require it)
Exempt vs. non-exempt: who gets time and a half
Only non-exempt employees are entitled to time and a half. Exemption from FLSA overtime requires meeting three tests: salary basis (paid a fixed salary), salary threshold (at least $684/week or $35,568/year in 2026), and duties test (executive, administrative, professional, computer, or outside-sales duties). All three tests must be satisfied. Paying a salary is not enough on its own.
A worker can be salaried and still non-exempt — entitled to overtime — if they earn below the salary threshold or fail the duties test. A retail store assistant manager earning $40,000/year on a salary basis is non-exempt if their day-to-day duties are mostly the same as the hourly cashiers. The Department of Labor and federal courts treat the duties test as the controlling factor in close cases.
Wage and Hour Division investigations consistently find that employers misclassify hourly workers as "managers" or "professionals" to avoid overtime. Misclassification triggers back pay for two years of unpaid overtime (three years for willful violations), plus liquidated damages and attorney's fees.
State rules stricter than federal time and a half
FLSA sets the federal floor. States can impose stricter overtime requirements, and when state law gives more pay than federal law, employers must follow the state rule. California is the most prominent example: it requires 1.5× for hours worked over 8 in a single day, in addition to the federal 40-hour weekly rule. California also requires double time (2×) for hours over 12 in a day and for any hours past 8 on the 7th consecutive workday.
Alaska, Nevada, and Colorado also have daily overtime rules but at less aggressive thresholds. Most other states follow the federal 40-hour rule. Always check your state labor department's wage-and-hour page before relying on the federal floor alone.
Double time vs. time and a half
Double time is 2× the base rate. FLSA does not require it. It exists as a state requirement (California) or as a voluntary employer benefit. Some collective bargaining agreements specify double time for Sundays, federal holidays, or extreme weekly hours. In construction and trades, double time on Sundays and after 12 daily hours is a common union contract term.
If your employer offers double time for holiday work and you would otherwise earn time and a half on those hours under FLSA (because they push you over 40 in the week), the double-time rate applies. The two premiums do not stack — you get whichever is higher.
Holiday and weekend overtime myths
Many workers believe federal law requires holiday pay or weekend premiums. It does not. FLSA is silent on holidays, weekends, evenings, and night shifts. Premium pay for those hours is entirely an employer policy or union contract issue, not a federal mandate. Federal employees are governed by a separate set of rules under the Office of Personnel Management, which does include holiday premium pay for the federal workforce — but those rules do not extend to private employers.
Common time-and-a-half mistakes
Three errors come up repeatedly in wage and hour disputes. First: assuming salaried means exempt. Salary alone does not exempt a worker; the salary threshold and duties test must also be met. Second: counting overtime by the day instead of the week. Federal law uses a 7-day workweek as the unit; daily totals do not trigger federal overtime unless state law adds a daily rule. Third: refusing to pay overtime that was not pre-authorized. Federal courts have ruled consistently that if the employer knows or has reason to know the employee worked overtime, the overtime must be paid even if it was not approved in advance. The employer can discipline the worker for unauthorized hours but cannot withhold the pay.