Overtime Pay Calculator (FLSA with California Overlay)

The Fair Labor Standards Act sets the federal floor for overtime: non-exempt employees get paid at one and one-half times their regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. That weekly-only rule is all most states require. A handful of states overlay a daily rule, and California is the most consequential because it stacks three separate triggers (daily over 8, weekly over 40, seventh consecutive workday) with a no-combining rule that says each hour gets exactly one overtime rate.

This calculator handles both. For federal, enter the hourly rate and the weekly hour total. For California, enter the hourly rate and hours worked each day of the workweek, ordered chronologically. The tool classifies each hour as regular, 1.5x overtime, or 2x double time per Labor Code section 510, then applies the weekly overlay only for hours not already claimed by a daily rule. If all seven days have non-zero hours, the seventh day's hours are paid at 1.5x for the first eight and 2x beyond that.

Not modeled: Alternative Workweek Schedules under Labor Code sections 511, 514, and 554 (which permit 10- or 12-hour days without daily overtime under specific employer-employee agreements), collective bargaining overrides, and the regular-rate inclusion of non-discretionary bonuses per 29 CFR 778.115. For any of those, use licensed payroll software or consult employment counsel. See the editorial standards for tool scoping conventions.

Federal (29 CFR 778.100): regular pay equals min(hours, 40) × rate. Overtime pay equals max(hours - 40, 0) × rate × 1.5. The regular rate formally includes non-discretionary bonuses averaged over the workweek under 29 CFR 778.115, but this tool assumes a simple hourly rate without bonus loading.

California (Labor Code § 510 with the no-combining rule): the calculator processes each day of the workweek in order. For a day that is not the seventh consecutive workday: hours 1-8 are regular, hours 9-12 are 1.5x, hours over 12 are 2x. For the seventh consecutive workday (all seven positions non-zero): hours 1-8 are 1.5x, hours over 8 are 2x. After daily classification, if weekly hours over 40 exceed the hours already claimed at 1.5x or 2x, the excess gets bumped from regular to 1.5x. The no-combining rule (Labor Code 510(a): "Nothing in this section requires an employer to combine more than one rate of overtime compensation") means no hour earns two rates; each hour settles at its highest applicable rate.

Use this to check that an employer or payroll system calculated overtime correctly on a recent paycheck, to estimate weekly pay when bidding a job with projected hours, or to understand how the California daily rule and seventh-day rule interact. For a real payroll run, use licensed payroll software; this tool is a reference aid. For workers under an Alternative Workweek Schedule adopted under Labor Code sections 511, 514, or 554, the daily overtime trigger shifts and this tool does not apply without modification. For exempt employees or commission-based pay, FLSA analysis turns on job duties and compensation structure rather than hours worked. Pair with the paycheck withholding estimator to estimate net pay after taxes.