Time and a half, worked out
How to Figure Out Time and a Half Pay
You do not need a degree in payroll to price an overtime shift. There is one rate to find and one multiplication per bucket of hours. Here is the whole method, then the cases where the simple version quietly breaks.
The short answer
Time-and-a-half pay = your regular rate × 1.5 × your overtime hours.
Worked example — $20.00/hr, 10 overtime hours
Overtime rate = $20.00 × 1.5 = $30.00/hr
Overtime pay = $30.00 × 10 hours = $300.00
Time-and-a-half pay for the week = $300.00 (on top of your regular pay)
The four steps
Most weeks fit in four moves. Everything after this section is for the weeks that do not.
- Find the regular rate. This is the hourly wage you are paid at for straight-time work. For a salaried hour-equivalent or a blended week, see the later sections — the base number is not always the one on your offer letter. regular rate = pay ÷ straight-time hours
- Multiply by 1.5. That gives the overtime rate. It is the regular rate plus half of it again. overtime rate = regular rate × 1.5
- Count the overtime hours. Under federal rules that is hours over 40 in a workweek. Some states and some daily rules start the clock earlier (covered below). overtime hours = total hours − 40 (federal baseline)
- Multiply and add. Overtime pay is the overtime rate times overtime hours. Add it to your regular pay for the gross total. overtime pay = overtime rate × overtime hours · gross = regular pay + overtime pay
Three rates, side by side
The arithmetic is identical; only the regular rate changes. These are illustrations, not a paycheck — drop your own numbers into the time and a half calculator to price a real shift.
Example A — $18.50/hr, 12 overtime hours
Overtime rate = $18.50 × 1.5 = $27.75/hr
Overtime pay = $27.75 × 12 = $333.00
Example B — $25.00/hr, 8 overtime hours
Overtime rate = $25.00 × 1.5 = $37.50/hr
Overtime pay = $37.50 × 8 = $300.00
Example C — $32.00/hr, 15 overtime hours
Overtime rate = $32.00 × 1.5 = $48.00/hr
Overtime pay = $48.00 × 15 = $720.00
What “regular rate” really means
This is the step most quick calculators skip, and it is where real paychecks drift from the back-of-envelope number. For overtime, the “regular rate” is not automatically your base hourly wage. Under the federal FLSA, non-discretionary bonuses, shift differentials and commissions usually get averaged back into the rate, which raises the 1.5× figure — so the overtime you are owed is often a little higher than the simple base-times-1.5 estimate.
Discretionary bonuses, genuine gifts and certain premium payments stay out of the regular rate. The exact line is fact-specific, so treat the number above as a worked illustration and let your payslip or payroll department be the final word.
Daily overtime: when 40 hours is not the whole story
Federal overtime keys off the 40-hour workweek. A handful of states add daily triggers, so a 10-hour day can carry overtime even if the whole week stays under 40. California is the common example: hours over 8 in a day are generally time and a half, hours over 12 are double time, and a 7th consecutive workday adds its own premiums.
Example — one 10-hour day in California at $20.00/hr
8 regular hours × $20.00 = $160.00
2 daily-overtime hours × ($20.00 × 1.5) = 2 × $30.00 = $60.00
That day = $220.00 — before any weekly overtime on top
If your state has no daily rule, a 10-hour day inside a 40-hour week is just straight time. Knowing which rule applies to you changes the count in step 3, which is exactly why a calculator that only understands the 40-hour week can understate your pay.
Two pay rates in one week: the weighted average
Some weeks mix rates — training at one rate, the floor at another, or a shift that changed tier mid-week. Federal rules let the employer use a “weighted average” regular rate: total straight-time pay divided by total straight-time hours. You can figure it out yourself before payroll does.
Example — 20 hours at $20.00 and 30 hours at $25.00, 50 total (10 overtime)
Straight-time pay = (20 × $20.00) + (30 × $25.00) = $400.00 + $750.00 = $1,150.00
Weighted regular rate = $1,150.00 ÷ 50 = $23.00/hr
Regular pay (first 40) = 40 × $23.00 = $920.00
Overtime pay (10) = 10 × ($23.00 × 1.5) = 10 × $34.50 = $345.00
Gross for the week = $920.00 + $345.00 = $1,265.00
Notice the overtime rate here ($34.50) is higher than if you had been paid a flat $20.00, because the higher-rate hours pulled the average up. That is the point of weighting: it is not the lowest rate, and it is not the highest — it is the blend.
What the three calculator sites leave out
We checked the three sites this project benchmarks against. None of them walks through the method the way the four steps above do — they hand you a box to fill in, not the reasoning behind the number.
Sources: benchmark read of redcort.com, teambridge.com and timecardcalculator.net (read 2026-10-10). redcort publishes a free timecard calculator and state-law indexes; teambridge covers overtime inside shift-differential and scheduling articles; timecardcalculator.net is a calculator with no explanatory article. None prints a plain “how to figure out the number” method page.
Questions people actually ask
How do you figure out time and a half for a salaried employee?
Convert the salary to an hourly equivalent first: take the weekly salary and divide by the number of hours the salary is intended to cover (often 40). That quotient is the regular rate. Overtime then runs at 1.5× that rate for hours over 40. Salaried does not mean exempt — exempt status is a separate FLSA test, and many salaried workers are still overtime-eligible.
How much is time and a half for $15 an hour?
$22.50 an hour. $15.00 + half of $15.00 ($7.50) = $22.50. At $17.00/hr it is $25.50, and at $22.00/hr it is $33.00. Multiply that overtime rate by your overtime hours for the dollar amount.
Does time and a half stack on top of double time?
They are different multipliers of the same regular rate, not additions to each other. A double-time hour is the regular rate × 2; a time-and-a-half hour is × 1.5. Which one applies to a given hour depends on the rule (daily threshold, 7th-day, contract) — an hour is generally paid under one premium tier, not both, unless a specific agreement says otherwise.
How do I figure time and a half for a 6-day, 12-hour schedule?
Count the overtime two ways and apply whichever rule governs you. Under the federal 40-hour week, 72 hours is 32 overtime hours at 1.5×. Under a daily-overtime state, each 12-hour day already carries 4 daily-overtime hours, and the 7th day (if worked) carries its own premiums — so the total premium hours can be higher than the federal count alone. Know your state before you trust a single number.
Is the time-and-a-half rate taxed differently?
No — overtime is ordinary wages for tax purposes. A bigger gross check can push more of your income into a higher withholding bracket for that period, so more tax is withheld, but the rate applied to the income is not higher. This page shows gross pay only and does no tax or withholding math.
Related pages
Time and a half calculator — price the tiers as you type
Already sorted your hours into regular, time-and-a-half, double and triple? Enter the rate and the hours and the pay updates live — no sign-up, nothing uploaded.
Overtime calculator — split a week across a threshold
Have one week’s total hours instead of tier-by-tier hours? Set the weekly threshold and multiplier and it splits regular from overtime, with the pay for each.
Time card calculator — weekly hours from clock-in and clock-out
Your raw material is start and end times? Get the weekly total in hours and minutes first, then bring those numbers to the calculators above.
Double time and a half calculator — the 2.5× tier, when it applies and how it stacks
Federal law stops at 1.5×, so a 2.5× rate is almost always contractual. Page shows the math, where 2.5× actually appears (union, entertainment, public-sector), and how the three premium tiers stack in one shift.