TimecardSumHow weekly overtime is calculated
Generally, covered, nonexempt employees are entitled to at least time and a half of their regular rate for hours worked beyond forty in a workweek under the FLSA. A workweek is a fixed, recurring period of seven consecutive days. It does not have to start on Sunday, so choose the start in this overtime calculator that matches the records you are checking.
This calculator's Weekly option puts the first forty worked hours into Regular and the remaining hours into Overtime. It applies the hourly rate you enter and the selected multiplier to estimate gross pay. It does not establish exemption status or calculate a special regular rate from bonuses, commissions, or several different hourly rates. Confirm those inputs separately before relying on an estimate.
Example: 45 hours at $20 per hour
With forty-five hours of work and a $20 rate, forty regular hours produce $800. The remaining five hours are paid at $30 each when the multiplier is 1.5, producing another $150. The combined estimate is $950 before taxes and deductions. The overtime portion is the full $150 payment for those five hours, not just the additional half-rate premium.
Enter the actual days so you can check how the hours accumulated. Five nine-hour days produce this example under Weekly when there are no unpaid breaks left to subtract. If your recorded spans include lunch, use the lunch calculator to establish worked hours first, or enter the appropriate deductions directly in this table.
| Category | Hours | Rate | Pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | 40 | $20 | $800 |
| Overtime | 5 | $30 | $150 |
| Total | 45 | — | $950 |
Daily overtime and simplified California rules
The Daily option in this tool assigns hours above eight in a day to overtime. Daily plus Weekly also checks the forty-hour weekly threshold without counting an hour twice. These are calculation modes, not a claim that every worker follows the same daily rule. Pick the mode that matches the rule you have already confirmed.
Generally, California's usual nonexempt framework includes time and a half beyond eight through twelve hours in a day, double time beyond twelve, and special treatment for a seventh consecutive workday within a workweek. The California mode is simplified and fixes multipliers at 1.5 and 2. It does not cover alternative workweek schedules or industry exceptions. Read the linked DLSE guidance when checking applicability.
Why biweekly pay still needs two weekly calculations
Generally, federal overtime cannot be avoided by averaging a long week with a short one. For example, fifty hours in week one and thirty in week two mean ten overtime hours under the forty-hour weekly rule. The total eighty hours are split into seventy regular and ten overtime hours, not eighty regular hours.
Select Biweekly to keep that separation visible. Each week has its own subtotal, and the final result combines their allocations. At $20 with time and a half, this example gives $1,400 in regular pay plus $300 in overtime pay, totaling $1,700. Switching back to Weekly preserves the second week's entries but excludes them from calculations and exports until you select Biweekly again.
Time and a half versus double time
A 1.5 multiplier makes a $20 base rate into a $30 overtime rate. A multiplier of 2 makes it $40. In the non-California modes, the overtime-pay setting changes the multiplier used for hours in the Overtime category. It does not create a separate legal entitlement or add hours to the card.
California mode uses separate time-and-a-half and double-time categories. A thirteen-hour day with no unpaid deduction is split into eight regular hours, four at 1.5, and one at 2 in this simplified model. At $20, that produces $160 + $120 + $40 = $320. The double-time column is hidden in other modes because those modes do not allocate hours to that category.
Common overtime calculation mistakes
Check three things before comparing the estimate with a pay statement. First, keep workweeks separate rather than treating an eighty-hour pay period as one threshold. Second, remove only the unpaid time actually included in the shift spans; a gap between two recorded work periods is already excluded. Third, use original minutes rather than adding rounded daily decimal displays.
The decimal hours calculator can help check a duration such as 7:30 against 7.50, but it does not classify overtime. For a general-purpose record, return to the time card calculator. Review the rate, rule, and rounding setting before printing. The result is gross pay only; deductions, withholding, and special compensation arrangements can make the actual paycheck different.