Overtime Calculator 2026

The rule: 1.5× after 40 hours in a workweek

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to pay non-exempt employees at least one and a half times their regular rate for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek. The workweek is a fixed, recurring 168-hour period the employer defines; it does not have to match the calendar week or the pay period, and overtime is computed within it — never averaged across two weeks of a biweekly pay period. Forty-five hours one week and thirty-five the next is five hours of overtime, not zero. The regular rate includes shift differentials and non-discretionary bonuses, so overtime on $22 plus a $2 differential is $36.00, not $35.00.

Federal law sets no daily threshold and no premium for weekends or holidays; those come from state law or from the employer's own policy. There is also no legal maximum on hours for adults in most jobs. What the law does require is that the overtime be paid in the pay period it was earned, or the next one at the latest.

Daily overtime and the four states that have it

California: Time-and-a-half after 8 hours in a day and for the first 8 hours of the seventh consecutive day; double time after 12 hours in a day and after 8 on the seventh day. (California Labor Code § 510; DIR overtime FAQ.) Alaska: Time-and-a-half after 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week, for employers with four or more employees. (Alaska Statutes § 23.10.060.) Nevada: Time-and-a-half after 8 hours in a workday for employees earning less than one and a half times the minimum wage; after 40 in a week for everyone. (Nevada Revised Statutes § 608.018.) Colorado: Time-and-a-half after 12 hours in a day, 12 consecutive hours, or 40 in a week, whichever gives more overtime. (Colorado Overtime and Minimum Pay Standards (COMPS) Order.) Everywhere else the federal weekly rule is the whole story, though a few states set overtime rules for specific industries. On the $22 example, eight overtime hours and four double-time hours in California come to $440.00 of overtime pay against $264.00 for eight overtime hours under the weekly rule.

The calculator applies the state's rule to the hours you enter as overtime and double time; it does not deduce daily overtime from a timesheet on its own. The hours calculator takes daily in-and-out times and applies the daily thresholds where they exist.

How overtime is taxed

Overtime pay is ordinary wages: federal income tax, FICA and state tax apply at the same rates as regular pay. What makes it feel taxed «more» is withholding. The IRS percentage method annualises each paycheck on its own, so a paycheck with $264.00 of overtime in it is withheld as if that overtime recurred every pay period all year — $6,864 a year of it. On the $22 example, $264.00 of overtime adds $212.12 to the take-home, 80.3% of it, and thirty overtime hours in one fortnight add $776.23 of the $990.00 earned, 78.4%, because the annualisation pushes the paycheck into a higher withholding row. The difference comes back at filing.

FICA takes its 7.65% of every overtime dollar ($20.20 on the example) unless the year's wages have passed the $184,500 cap. State tax follows the state's rules. Nothing about overtime changes your marginal rate on its own; it is just more income in the same brackets.

The 2026 overtime deduction, exactly

From 2026, qualified overtime compensation is deductible from federal taxable income: up to $12,500 for a single filer and $25,000 on a joint return, reduced by $100 for every $1,000 of modified adjusted gross income above $150,000 ($300,000 joint). «Qualified» means the premium part of overtime required by the FLSA — the extra half of time-and-a-half, not the whole overtime wage, and not premiums an employer pays voluntarily above what the law requires. On the $22 example the premium is $88.00 per paycheck, $2,288 a year, and the deduction is worth about $275 at the 12% bracket.

It is a deduction at filing, not a change to the paycheck: Publication 15-T has no line for it, employers withhold on overtime exactly as before, and the benefit arrives as a larger refund. Your 2026 W-2 will report qualified overtime separately for the purpose. It does not reduce FICA or state tax, and it is available whether or not you itemise. The calculator shows it in its own box so that the paycheck figure and the year-end figure stay distinct.

Who gets overtime: exempt vs non-exempt

Overtime is owed to non-exempt employees, hourly or salaried. Exemption requires both a salary above the federal threshold and duties that fit an exemption — executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, certain computer roles — and a job title does not settle it; the duties do. A salaried employee who fails the tests is owed overtime on a regular rate of salary divided by the hours the salary covers, and a salaried employee who passes them can work sixty hours for the same pay. The exempt vs non-exempt guide walks through the tests and the 2026 threshold; misclassification is the most common wage claim in the country.

Independent contractors are outside the FLSA entirely and have no overtime, which is one reason the distinction between a contractor and an employee is policed: a worker controlled like an employee but paid like a contractor may be owed back overtime.

Reading overtime on your pay stub

Overtime appears as its own earnings line — «OT», «Overtime 1.5», «Double time» — with the hours and the rate, and the rate should be at least 1.5 times your regular rate including any differential. Check three things: that the overtime hours match the hours beyond 40 in each workweek (not averaged over the pay period), that the rate includes differentials and non-discretionary bonuses, and that the year-to-date overtime is tracked, because the 2026 deduction is claimed from the year's total. If your stub does not separate the overtime premium from regular pay, ask payroll to; the W-2 will need it.

The three taxes on a paycheck, and why they behave differently

Federal income tax is progressive and starts from zero: the first $16,100 a single filer earns in 2026 is untaxed because that is the standard deduction, and the rate then climbs through seven brackets from 10% to 37%. It is the only line your W-4 changes. FICA is flat from the first dollar — 6.2% for Social Security up to $184,500 of wages and 1.45% for Medicare without limit — and no form changes it. State income tax is whatever your state decided: nothing in 9 states, one flat rate in 13, brackets in the other 29, and 11 states let a city or county add a line of their own.

On the $2,024.00 biweekly example above: $159.03 of federal withholding, $154.84 of FICA and $0.00 of Texas tax. Keeping them on separate lines is the point: a 401(k) contribution moves the first and third but not the second; a raise moves all three at different rates; the Social Security cap moves only the second. A single «taxes» figure hides which lever does what.

Withholding is not your tax

Every federal line on a paycheck is an estimate your employer makes on your behalf, following your W-4 and IRS Publication 15-T; the tax itself is settled once a year on your return. On $22 an hour with eight overtime hours every two weeks, the year's withholding comes to $4,135 against a projected tax of $3,860: $274 more than needed, which returns as a refund. Neither a refund nor a bill is a mistake by anyone; it means the W-4 on file did not describe the year exactly, and both are fixed on the W-4, not on the paycheck.

The three places the estimate goes wrong most: a second income in the household without the box in step 2(c) checked, so that both employers apply the full $16,100 standard deduction; a bonus withheld at the flat 22% when the marginal rate is something else; and untaxed side income with nothing on step 4(a). From 2026 there is a fourth, in the taxpayer's favour: the deductions for overtime premium pay and tips reduce the tax but not the withholding. The W-4 fixer turns the gap into the exact lines to change.

Pay frequency changes the number, not the pay

$45,760 a year is $880.00 a week, $1,760.00 every two weeks, $1,906.67 twice a month and $3,813.33 a month. Nothing about the tax changes, only the slice you see on payday — but the slice is what people budget from, and biweekly and semi-monthly are the pair that get confused: the biweekly paycheck is about 7.7% smaller, and in return two months a year contain three of them.

Frequency also affects withholding precision, because the IRS percentage method annualises each paycheck on its own. A monthly paycheck with a bonus in it is annualised twelve times over, a weekly one fifty-two times, which is why bonuses are usually withheld separately at a flat rate. Some years have 27 biweekly or 53 weekly paydays; the advanced panel of the paycheck calculator has both, because payroll software does.

What changed in 2026

The standard deduction is $16,100 single, $32,200 joint and $24,150 head of household; every bracket threshold moved up with inflation; the Social Security wage base is $184,500; the 401(k) elective limit is $24,500. Each is read from the document that sets it — IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, the SSA's contribution and benefit base, IRS Notice 2025-67 — and listed with its source under the calculator.

The bigger change is the set of new federal deductions: qualified overtime premium pay up to $12,500 ($25,000 joint), reported tips up to $25,000, and $6,000 more for each person aged 65 or over, all phasing out above $150,000 of income. None of them changes what an employer withholds, because Publication 15-T does not know about them; they reduce the tax owed at filing, which is why the calculators on this site show them in the «withholding vs what you owe» box rather than on the paycheck. The what changed in 2026 guide keeps the dated list, including state changes.

A worked example: $45,760 in Colorado, paid every two weeks

Take $45,760 a year in Colorado, paid every two weeks (26 paychecks), single, standard W-4, no pre-tax deductions. The gross per paycheck is $1,760.00. Federal income tax withholding, from the 2026 Publication 15-T percentage method, takes $127.35. Social Security takes 6.2% of gross, $109.12, and Medicare 1.45%, $25.52. Colorado withholds $50.19 under its flat rate and deductions. The net deposit is $1,447.82, 82.3% of gross; over the year that is $37,643 from $45,760, an effective rate of 17.7% on all taxes together. Every line is reproducible from the documents on the sources page, and the table below lists them in the order they appear on a stub.

Two things on that stub are not obvious from the totals. First, the federal line is withholding, not tax: the tables annualise this paycheck as if all 26 were identical, and the year's actual tax, $3,311, differs from the $3,311 withheld by $0, which becomes a bill in April. Second, Social Security and Medicare are the same fraction of every paycheck of the year, because the salary is under the wage base, and no form can change them; only Section 125 deductions reduce their base. The reading guide walks each line and names what it should equal.

Nearby hourly rates at 80 hours per two weeks

A dollar an hour more or less changes the every two weeks paycheck by about $80.00 gross and somewhat less net. The ladder below runs the same hours at rates from $17.00 to $32.00 in Colorado; the hourly to salary converter turns any rate into a year and the hourly calculator adds overtime and tips.

Nearby salaries: what $25,760 to $80,760 leave in Colorado

A raise or a job offer is rarely at the round number on this page, so here is the ladder around it: the same every two weeks paycheck at 6 salaries from $25,760 to $80,760, single, standard W-4, no deductions. The effective rate climbs from 13.0% to 22.2% across the range because federal income tax is progressive while FICA is flat; each extra $10,000 of salary leaves less than the last, and the pay raise calculator prices any step exactly. The salary after tax pages carry the full range, one page per amount.

Reading the ladder the other way answers the interview question: to take home $10,000 more a year in Colorado takes a raise of roughly $12,860 in gross at this level, because the new dollars are taxed at the marginal rate rather than the average. The state column grows in a straight line, since Colorado charges one rate; the FICA column grows in a straight line until the wage base. The gross-up calculator runs the reverse computation for any net.

The same paycheck under each filing status

Filing status is the one W-4 line everyone fills in, and it moves the federal line more than most people expect. On $45,760 in Colorado, paid every two weeks, a single filer is withheld $127.35 per paycheck; married filing jointly (one income) $52.15, because the joint table doubles the standard deduction to $32,200 and widens every bracket; head of household $86.12, with its $24,150 deduction and its own brackets. Married filing separately uses the single table. Colorado's own deductions and brackets are the same for joint filers, which is why the state column moves too. Picking «married» with two incomes and skipping step 2 is the commonest cause of an April bill; the W-4 guide covers the choice.

The last column shows why the status matters beyond the paycheck: the year's federal income tax on $45,760 is $3,311 single and $1,356 married filing jointly on one income, a difference of $1,955 that the W-4 status either delivers through the year or holds back for a refund. Head of household is the status most often missed by single parents, who leave $1,072 a year on the single table. FICA is identical in every row, since it has no status.

The whole year on $45,760: withholding, tax due, and the settlement

26 paychecks of $1,760.00 withhold $3,311 of federal income tax over 2026. The tax actually due on the return, with the $16,100 standard deduction and no credits, is $3,311, so the year ends with about $0 owed — the gap between the withholding tables' approximation and the exact computation. The marginal rate on the last dollar is 12%; the effective rate on all taxes together is 17.7%. Social Security applies to every paycheck of the year, because $45,760 is under the $184,500 wage base. The 2026 deductions for overtime premium and tips apply at filing to anyone with qualifying pay; they do not change these paychecks. Colorado takes $1,305 for the year, 2.9% of salary.

Refund or bill: what the year settles

Withholding is a prepayment; the return computes the tax and returns or collects the difference. On $45,760 with these settings the year withholds $3,311 against $3,311 due, so the settlement is a bill of about $0. A refund is money lent to the Treasury at no interest for up to sixteen months; a bill is fine up to a point and penalised beyond it. The point is the safe harbour: withholding of at least 90% of this year's tax ($2,980 here) or 100% of last year's (110% above $150,000 of income) avoids the underpayment penalty, which is interest on each quarter's shortfall. These paychecks clear the 90% harbour on their own.

What makes the settlement move: credits the W-4 does not carry (the earned income credit, education credits, the 2026 overtime and tip deductions), which enlarge the refund; a second income, other income, or too many dependents on the form, which produce the bill; a bonus withheld at the flat 22% when the marginal rate is 12%, which over-withholds at this salary; and a change of job or a partial year, which annualises each paycheck wrongly. The W-4 fixer sets the lines that bring the settlement to zero, or to a chosen refund.

What deductions do to this paycheck

Deductions are where the same salary produces different paychecks. A 6% traditional 401(k) contribution — $105.60 per paycheck on $45,760, well under the $24,500 annual limit — reduces federal and state taxable wages but not FICA wages, so it costs $88.29 of take-home rather than its face value. A $150 Section 125 deduction for health premiums or an HSA reduces every base including FICA, and costs $113.93. A Roth contribution of the same 6% comes out after tax and costs the full amount now in exchange for tax-free withdrawals later. The table gives each case for this paycheck; the pre-tax deductions calculator runs any amount and the 401(k) calculator draws the whole curve.

The order matters on the stub as well as in the arithmetic. Section 125 items come off first and reduce the FICA wages line, which is why a health premium lowers the Social Security and Medicare figures by 7.65% of itself; the 401(k) comes off next and reduces federal taxable wages only. Both appear in the W-2: box 1 (federal wages) is gross minus both, boxes 3 and 5 (Social Security and Medicare wages) are gross minus the Section 125 items alone. An employer match, where there is one, is added on top of the contribution and never touches the paycheck; the compare two jobs tool values it.

What each W-4 line does to this paycheck

The federal line is the only tax on the stub that a form can change, and each step of the W-4 moves it by a predictable amount. One qualifying child on step 3 lowers withholding by $84.62 per paycheck — the $2,200 credit spread over 26 paychecks — taking the net to $1,532.43. Checking box 2(c) for a second job raises it by $90.04, because the checkbox table halves the brackets so that each job is withheld as if it earned half the household income. Extra withholding on 4(c) is dollar for dollar. Other income on 4(a) adds the tax on it at the marginal rate; deductions on 4(b) remove it. The table runs each case for $45,760 in Colorado; the W-4 fixer computes the combination that makes the year's withholding equal the year's tax.

None of these lines changes the tax; they change when it is paid. Claiming a child that is not yours on step 3, or deductions you will not take on 4(b), enlarges every paycheck and produces the same amount plus a penalty in April. The lawful levers are the ones you are entitled to — the children you have, the deductions you will itemise, the second income you must account for — and the fixer applies exactly those. A new W-4 takes effect from the next payroll run after your employer receives it, and the year-to-date withholding already taken is not recomputed.

Common mistakes

Averaging hours across a biweekly period. Overtime is per workweek. Paying overtime on the base rate without the differential. The regular rate includes it. Expecting the 2026 deduction on the paycheck. It arrives at filing. Assuming «salaried» means «no overtime». Only the exemption tests decide.

Reading the flat 22% on a bonus as the tax on it. It is withholding; the tax is your marginal rate. Budgeting from the wrong paycheck: biweekly and semi-monthly differ by about 7.7%. Claiming the same child on two W-4s, which under-withholds the household by the credit. Assuming a raise can push you into a bracket that leaves you worse off — in a progressive system it cannot. Forgetting the Social Security cap: above $184,500 the later paychecks are larger, and a budget built on January's paycheck is too tight for December's.