Understanding Time and a Half
If you are an hourly employee, understanding how your overtime is calculated is essential to ensure your paychecks are accurate. "Time and a half" is the standard premium pay rate for overtime work. Our Time and a Half Calculator breaks down your regular wages and your overtime premium instantly.
If you need to calculate your decimal hours from a timesheet before using this tool, check out our Hours Calculator first.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
In the United States, the Fair Labor Standards Act mandates that non-exempt employees must be paid overtime at a rate of at least one and one-half times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek.
- Regular Rate: $20.00 / hr
- Time and a Half (1.5x): $30.00 / hr ($20 × 1.5)
If you work 45 hours in a week at $20/hr, you get 40 hours at $20 ($800) and 5 hours at $30 ($150), for a total gross pay of $950.
Daily Overtime and Double Time
While federal law strictly looks at the 40-hour workweek, certain states (like California) have stricter daily overtime laws.
- Daily Overtime: Paid at 1.5x for hours worked beyond 8 hours in a single day.
- Double Time (2.0x): Paid at 2.0x for hours worked beyond 12 hours in a single workday, or beyond 8 hours on the 7th consecutive day of work.
You can use the Custom / Daily tab in our calculator to accurately price out these specific double time hours.