Every wage has a time-and-a-half rate hiding one multiplication away. Enter yours below to see the number that should show up next to your overtime hours on your stub.
Estimates only.
| Regular rate | Time and a half rate (1.5x) |
|---|---|
| $12.00/hr | $18.00/hr |
| $15.00/hr | $22.50/hr |
| $18.00/hr | $27.00/hr |
| $20.00/hr | $30.00/hr |
| $25.00/hr | $37.50/hr |
The federal floor for this multiplier is 1.5, set by the FLSA. See our editorial standards for how we check figures like this one.
Take your regular rate, multiply by 1.5, and that is your time-and-a-half rate. A $24 hourly wage becomes $36 an hour for qualifying overtime. Multiply that rate by the overtime hours worked and you have the gross overtime pay: 12 hours at $36 is $432, sitting on top of whatever the regular 40 hours already paid.
The 1.5 multiplier applies to your FLSA "regular rate," and for some workers that is not the same as their posted hourly wage. Nondiscretionary bonuses and shift differentials, pay tied to a production goal or a night shift, get blended into the regular rate first. A $20 base rate with a $2 night differential gives a $22 regular rate, and time and a half on that is $33, not $30. If your pay stub's overtime rate looks slightly higher than a base-wage-only calculation, this is usually why.
A check built from time-and-a-half hours is a bigger check, and payroll withholding tables size their bite to whatever a given check looks like annualized. That can make one heavy check feel more heavily taxed than usual, even though the tax rate on overtime pay is identical to the rate on regular pay. The overtime calculator walks through that withholding mechanic and the Social Security wage base interaction in more detail.
Double time, a 2.0 multiplier, is not the federal standard and is not required by the FLSA at all. Where it shows up, it comes from a state law, a union contract, or an employer's own policy, most commonly for hours past a daily threshold rather than a weekly one. If your situation calls for double time instead of time and a half, use 2 as your multiplier when running the numbers elsewhere on this site.
Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, Overtime Pay, DOL Fact Sheet 23.
Your pay stub may be using your true FLSA regular rate rather than your posted hourly wage. If you earn shift differentials or nondiscretionary bonuses, those get blended into the regular rate before the 1.5 multiplier applies, which can push the stub's rate slightly above a base-wage-only calculation.
The federal floor is exactly 1.5. Some union contracts or employer policies pay a higher multiplier voluntarily, and a few states set higher minimums in specific industries. Absent one of those, 1.5 is the number payroll should be using.
Not by tax rule, only by check size. A bigger gross check from time-and-a-half hours can land in a higher withholding bracket for that pay period under the standard payroll tables, but your actual annual tax rate depends on total yearly income, not any single check's rate.
No. Each employer calculates and withholds independently. Your Social Security wage base tracking, however, is based on total wages across all employers for the year, so heavy overtime at two jobs can combine to cross the annual cap even if neither job alone would.
Add the differential into your base rate first, then multiply the combined figure by 1.5. A $20 base rate with a $2 night differential gives a $22 regular rate, and time and a half on that is $33, not $30.