Do I get overtime pay? Time and a half under US federal law

Short answer: If you are an employee covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and not exempt, yes: every hour over 40 in a workweek must be paid at no less than one and one-half times your regular rate ^[1]. The Act exempts some groups ^[2], and a state law that sets a shorter maximum workweek still applies ^[3].

How the overtime figure is worked out

1. Count the hours of one workweek: a fixed, regularly recurring period of 168 hours, seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It does not have to match the calendar week ^[4].
2. Do not average two weeks: 30 hours one week and 50 the next still means 10 overtime hours in the second week ^[4].
3. Find the regular rate: your total pay for the week, apart from the legal exclusions, divided by the hours you actually worked ^[4].
4. For each hour over 40, add half the regular rate on top of straight-time pay. The regulation's own example: $12 an hour for 46 hours comes to $588, that is 46 hours at $12 plus 6 hours at $6 ^[4].

Who is not covered

The Act lists exemptions in a separate section. One of them covers employees in a bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacity, as defined in the regulations ^[2].

State law

The federal Act does not excuse an employer from a federal or state law or municipal ordinance that sets a higher minimum wage or a maximum workweek lower than 40 hours ^[3]. Check the rule where you work as well.

Checking your overtime against your payslip

Overtime and premium rules differ by country, sector and contract and they change; the rates used here are the ones YOU enter. Treat a difference from your payslip as a question for your employer or union, not as proof of an error.

Shift Planner & Overtime Pay — Log the shift, check the overtime, and read your own payslip.

• The PDF timesheet shows how every figure was reached: each shift with its multiplier, the rule you entered and where you read it
• Your overtime rule: daily, weekly and monthly thresholds, a second tier, night, rest-day and holiday multipliers, rounding and fixed pay per shift
• Log a shift by typing it, with a one-tap shift type or with Clock in / Clock out; edit any saved shift; 24-hour shifts
• A month calendar of shifts, planned rota days and leave; day notes with icons, to-dos, photos and drawings
• Paint days with a shift type, a leave type or the eraser, or select days to copy, cut, paste, repeat, fill or delete them; one-step undo, and a shift that would overlap is skipped and counted
• In English or Turkish: menus, reports, the PDF timesheet and reminders follow the language you pick; what you typed stays as you typed it
• Rota patterns years ahead: Pitman, Continental, DuPont, Panama, 24/48, 24/72, 2-2-2 or your own; a planned shift is paid only once you log it
• Reports for a day, week, pay period, month, year or your dates: hours by label, project and client, bonuses, tips, charts and a payslip check
• Several employers, each with its own rate, pay period, rule, rota and PDF; leave balances and an earnings budget
• Widgets for today (with Clock in), the week, two weeks and the month, and a lock-screen widget where your phone supports it; never your pay
• Export CSV, Excel, a printable calendar or .ics; import shifts from .ics or CSV; adding shifts is always free

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Sources

1. 29 U.S. Code § 207 — Maximum hours (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School) — https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/207 (accessed 2026-10-22)
2. 29 U.S. Code § 213 — Exemptions (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School) — https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/213 (accessed 2026-10-22)
3. 29 U.S. Code § 218 — Relation to other laws (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School) — https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/218 (accessed 2026-10-22)
4. 29 CFR Part 778 — Overtime Compensation (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations) — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-V/subchapter-B/part-778 (accessed 2026-10-22)

Shift Planner & Overtime Pay is an independent app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any institution, authority, brand or company mentioned in it.