Overtime pay is two multiplications: the hours up to 40 in a workweek at the regular rate, and the hours past 40 at one and a half times that rate. At $22 an hour with 46 hours worked, that is $880 of regular pay plus $198 of overtime pay — $1,078 gross for the week. The Overtime Pay Calculator runs the split on your own week; this guide explains the workweek rule underneath it, and which parts of pay count toward the rate.
The workweek: the rule everything hangs on
Federal overtime is counted by the workweek, never by the day and never averaged across weeks. A workweek is a fixed, regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods — that the employer sets; it does not have to start on Monday. Each week stands alone: 46 hours this week earns 6 hours of overtime even if last week was 30, and the two weeks cannot be averaged into two 38-hour weeks with none. That single rule explains most overtime surprises in both directions — the 12-hour day that earns nothing extra because the week totalled 38, and the ordinary-looking week of five 9-hour days that earns 5 overtime hours because it totalled 45.
Worked example — $22 an hour, 46 hours in the week
Jada works a retail job at $22.00 an hour and works 46 hours in one workweek. She is non-exempt, the federal threshold is 40 hours, and the multiplier is 1.5:
- Regular hours: 40 × $22.00 = $880.00
- Overtime rate: $22.00 × 1.5 = $33.00 an hour
- Overtime hours: 46 − 40 = 6 × $33.00 = $198.00
- Gross pay for the week: $880.00 + $198.00 = $1,078.00
One slice of that total is worth isolating: the premium. Six overtime hours at straight time would have paid 6 × $22 = $132; they paid $198, so the overtime premium — the extra half — is $66.00. It is the only part of the check that exists because of the overtime rule, and it is the figure that matters when comparing a week with overtime against the same hours at straight time. Spread across all 46 hours, the week works out to an effective rate of $1,078 ÷ 46 = $23.43 an hour; a year of identical weeks would annualize to $1,078 × 52 = $56,056, though real weeks rarely repeat that evenly.
That premium has a second life at tax time. For tax years 2025–2028, the premium portion of overtime pay required by the Fair Labor Standards Act — the pay above the regular rate, generally the “half” of time-and-a-half, which in this example is exactly the $66.00 — is deductible under the “no tax on overtime” deduction. The deduction is capped at $12,500 a year ($25,000 for joint filers) and phases out above $150,000 of modified adjusted gross income ($300,000 joint), and it is available whether you itemize or take the standard deduction.
Try it with your own numbers
This mini-calculator is prefilled with the worked example above and runs the same split as the full tool. The full calculator also handles an additional-pay amount and custom multipliers entered as presets.
Result
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| Regular pay | — |
| Overtime pay | — |
| Overtime premium only (the extra half) | — |
| Overtime rate | — |
| Annualized (this week × 52) | — |
Open the full calculator — the Overtime Pay Calculator runs the complete version of this calculation.
Who the rule covers — and what counts as the rate
The federal requirement covers non-exempt employees. Executive, administrative, professional, computer, and outside-sales employees who meet the salary and duties tests are exempt — their pay does not change with hours past 40, which is why the first question in any overtime dispute is classification, not arithmetic. For covered employees, the "regular rate" the 1.5 multiplies is a legal figure, not just the headline wage: nondiscretionary bonuses, shift differentials, and most other remuneration for employment are included, so a week containing a promised production bonus carries a higher regular rate — and higher overtime — than the base wage alone suggests. Some employers also pay above the federal floor by policy or contract — double time past a daily hour count, or overtime after 8 hours in a day — and a few states add daily overtime rules of their own. The calculation above is the federal standard the calculator runs; anything richer is layered on top of it, never instead of it.
Gross pay is not the paycheck
Everything on this page is gross — before taxes and deductions. Overtime pay is ordinary wage income: no separate federal rate applies to the hours themselves, though a larger check is withheld from as if the larger amount were the new weekly normal, which sorts itself out on the annual return. Lump sums are handled differently again — a bonus is withheld at the flat supplemental rate rather than through the tables, which is the estimate the Bonus Tax Calculator runs. And the comparison underneath many overtime questions — whether the hours are worth more as an employee or billed as a contractor — is not an overtime question at all: it is the total-value comparison the 1099 vs W-2 Calculator makes, where the overtime premium is one of the things the contract rate has to replace.
For educational and planning purposes only — not professional advice. This guide explains the federal overtime calculation with a simplified example (one hourly rate, one workweek, no bonuses or differentials folded into the regular rate). It is not legal or tax advice, and state rules and employer policies can require more. Verify your classification and pay against your pay stub and U.S. Department of Labor guidance, and raise discrepancies with your employer or a qualified employment professional.