Time and a Half Explained: How Overtime Pay Is Really Calculated
By the Super Simple Digital Tools Team · Updated June 2026
Time and a half is one of those payroll phrases everyone has heard but few can define precisely. It simply means 1.5 times your normal hourly rate, so a worker earning $18 an hour is paid $27 for each overtime hour. The half is the premium your employer adds for hours worked beyond the normal threshold. The phrase says nothing about how many hours you have worked, only about the rate that kicks in once you cross into overtime territory.
In the United States, the trigger for that premium is the workweek. The Fair Labor Standards Act defines a workweek as a fixed, recurring period of 168 consecutive hours, and it requires at least time and a half for non-exempt employees on every hour past 40 in that week. Crucially, employers cannot average two weeks together to dodge the rule: 50 hours one week and 30 the next still owes 10 hours of overtime, not zero. The workweek does not have to match the calendar week, but it must stay consistent.
Calculating it yourself takes two steps. First, find your overtime rate by multiplying your regular rate by 1.5. Then multiply that overtime rate by the number of overtime hours. If you want your full paycheck for the week, add your regular pay for the first 40 hours to that overtime figure. For example, 40 hours at $20 is $800, plus 6 overtime hours at $30 is $180, giving $980 in gross pay for the week.
Salaried workers trip people up because there is no obvious hourly figure to start from. If you are salaried but non-exempt, you first convert the salary to an hourly regular rate by dividing your weekly salary by the hours that salary is intended to cover, then apply the 1.5 multiplier to that rate. A separate wrinkle is bonuses: nondiscretionary bonuses tied to performance or attendance have to be rolled into the regular rate before the multiplier, which nudges the overtime rate upward beyond the base wage alone.
Use this calculator as a quick, private check rather than a legal ruling. It assumes a straightforward 1.5 multiplier and the rate you supply, and it returns gross numbers before tax. State laws frequently go further than the federal floor, adding daily overtime or double time, and your employment contract may be more generous still. When the stakes are high, confirm against your pay stub, your state labor department, and your employer's written policy.
- Enter your true regular rate, including any nondiscretionary bonus folded in, so the 1.5 multiplier reflects what the law actually requires.
- Remember the 40-hour line is per workweek, not per pay period, so a biweekly check still owes overtime week by week.
- Check whether your state mandates daily overtime or double time; the federal time-and-a-half rule is only the minimum.
- Treat the result as gross pay and subtract your usual tax and deduction percentage to estimate real take-home before payday.