You worked late three nights this week and want to know what that's worth before the payslip arrives. Overtime pay is a short sum once you know which hours count as overtime and what they're multiplied by. This guide walks through working it out by hand, with worked examples, then how Hours Cat, our work hours tracker for iPhone, does the same sum for you.
What counts as overtime
Overtime is the hours past a limit, paid at a higher rate. Where the limit sits and how much more it pays depend on where you work. In the US it's often time and a half after 40 hours in a week, but rules differ by country, state and contract, and some places also count hours past a limit in one day. Check yours before you rely on a figure.
You need three numbers:
- Your hourly rate, the regular one.
- The overtime limit, per day, per week, or both.
- The overtime multiplier: 1.5 for time and a half, 2 for double time.
Overtime pay, step by step
- Add up your hours for the day or week. If you need help with start and end times, breaks or night shifts, see how to calculate hours worked.
- Split the hours into regular hours (up to the limit) and overtime hours (everything past it).
- Find your overtime rate: hourly rate × multiplier.
- Multiply: regular hours × rate, and overtime hours × overtime rate.
- Add the two together.
Say you earn 18 an hour, overtime starts after 40 hours a week at time and a half, and you worked 45 hours:
- Regular: 40 × 18 = 720.00
- Overtime rate: 18 × 1.5 = 27.00
- Overtime: 5 × 27 = 135.00
- Total: 720 + 135 = 855.00
Another way to get the same answer: pay every hour at the normal rate, then add the extra half for the overtime hours. 45 × 18 = 810, plus 5 × 9 = 45, makes 855.
Overtime with minutes
Overtime hours often aren't whole. Turn the minutes into a decimal first: divide by 60. If you worked 45 h 30 min, the overtime is 5 h 30 min, which is 5.5 hours:
- 5.5 × 27 = 148.50 in overtime
- 720 + 148.50 = 868.50 for the week
Watch out for 5:30 written as 5.3. That's 5 h 18 min, and it would pay you 5.40 short here.
Daily overtime
Where overtime is counted per day, do the split day by day. With overtime after 8 hours a day, a 10-hour Tuesday is 8 regular hours and 2 overtime hours. At 18 an hour and time and a half, that day is 8 × 18 + 2 × 27 = 144 + 54 = 198.00.
If your job counts overtime both per day and per week, don't pay the same hours twice. Hours already counted as daily overtime usually aren't counted again towards the weekly limit, but check how your employer does it.
Double time and other multipliers
The steps don't change, only the multiplier. At double time, 3 hours at 18 is 3 × 18 × 2 = 108.00. At 1.25, the overtime rate is 18 × 1.25 = 22.50.
Some jobs pay one rate after a first limit and a higher one after a second. Then split the hours into three parts, regular, first overtime and second overtime, and multiply each part by its own rate.
How Hours Cat works out overtime
- Set your rate. Go to More › Jobs, open your job and type the Hourly rate. It's used for new shifts. Past shifts keep the rate they were worked at, and you can change the rate on a single shift by opening it.
- Turn on overtime. In More, tap Rounding, overtime and breaks. Under Overtime, switch on Daily overtime, Weekly overtime or both. They start at After 8 h a day and After 40 h a week, and you can change them. Then pick Overtime pay: 1.25×, 1.5×, 1.75×, 2×, 2.5× or 3× the rate. It starts at 1.5×. Overtime is off until you turn it on.
- No hours counted twice. Hours already paid as daily overtime don't count again towards the weekly limit. A shift counts on the day and week it started, and the week starts on the day you pick in More › Week starts on.
- One multiplier per rule. If your overtime has two steps, Hours Cat pays all overtime hours at the one multiplier you pick, so work the second step out by hand as above.
- See the result. The Timesheet tab shows the week's hours worked, what you earned with overtime included, and, once there's overtime, a line with your regular and overtime hours. When you open a single shift, its pay is shown before overtime, because overtime depends on the rest of the week.
To hand it in, tap Export on the Timesheet tab. The PDF shows Total hours, Regular, Overtime and Earnings, marks each shift with overtime with a , and prints the rule you used, such as "Overtime after 40 h a week at 1.5×." Spreadsheet (CSV)* gives regular and overtime hours, the rate and the earnings for every shift, and Print sends it to a printer. The full walk-through is in how to make a timesheet on iPhone.
What it costs
Clocking in and out, breaks, your history, editing, one job with its rate, rounding, the automatic break, the overtime setting, and the PDF and CSV timesheet are free, with no limits on shifts or history. There's no watermark, no ads and no account. Hours Cat Pro is an optional one-time purchase that adds several jobs, overtime per job (a job gets its own rule, counted apart from your other jobs), pay every two weeks or twice a month with a pay stub of regular and overtime hours and pay, and your job's colour on the widget and Lock Screen. More on the Hours Cat page.
Your hours are kept on your device and in your own backups unless you share, save or print them. The figures are your hours times your rate, before tax and deductions. They aren't a payslip, and they don't tell you what you're owed.
Quick answers
How do you calculate time and a half?
Multiply your hourly rate by 1.5 to get the overtime rate, then multiply that by your overtime hours. At 18 an hour, 5 overtime hours are 5 × 27 = 135.00.
How do I calculate overtime pay for 45 hours a week?
With overtime after 40 hours at time and a half: 40 × rate, plus 5 × rate × 1.5. At 18 an hour that's 720 + 135 = 855.00.
How do I calculate overtime with minutes?
Turn the minutes into a decimal by dividing by 60, then multiply. 2 h 15 min is 2.25 hours, so at 27 an hour it's 60.75.
Try Hours Cat
Try Hours Cat: free, no watermark, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/hours-cat