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California pays time and a half after 8 hours in a workday and double time after 12, plus a seventh-consecutive-day premium — and hours already paid a daily premium are not counted again toward the weekly 40. Put your week in below — the thresholds on this page are already loaded, and every line of the result names the rule it came from.
Last reviewed · maintained by Ihor Bezrukavnyk · how we calculate
California · 8h/day · 40h/week
A differential is not a separate bonus. It folds into the regular rate the multiplier is applied to, so every overtime hour that week gets more valuable — paying 1.5× on base plus 1.0× on the differential is the classic short-pay.
Sun 12 AM
Biweekly period · gross
$2,090.00
87h across 2 workweeks · $176.00 of it earned above straight time
workweeks in this period
what this week should pay · gross
45h
$1,144.00
No weekly overtime owed: hours already paid a daily premium do not count again toward the 40. No hour is counted twice.
Assumes a Sunday workweek. Your employer sets this and it is printed on your stub — the app asks properly.
missed by a flat tracker
+$176.00
Multiplying every hour by $22.00 shows $1,914.00 for this period.
This, automatically, every shift.
US and Canada · works offline · no account.
| rule | threshold | rate | source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily overtime | Over 8 h in a workday | 1.5× the regular rate | Cal. Labor Code § 510 |
| Double time | Over 12 h in a workday | 2× the regular rate | Cal. Labor Code § 510 |
| Seventh consecutive day | Every hour worked on the 7th day of one workweek | 1.5× for the first 8 hours of that day, 2× beyond | Cal. Labor Code § 510 |
| Weekly overtime | Over 40 h in a workweek | 1.5× the regular rate | Cal. Labor Code § 510 |
| Regular rate | Base wage plus nondiscretionary bonuses and shift differentials | 1× what every multiplier above is applied to | 29 C.F.R. Part 778 — what goes into the regular rate |
California does not count an hour twice. An hour already paid at the daily rate is taken out of the count that decides whether you passed 40 for the week, so the daily and weekly rules never stack on the same hour — and a week well past 40 hours can carry fewer premium hours than a flat tracker predicts.
The seventh-day premium turns entirely on where your workweek starts. The calculator above applies it against a Sunday workweek — seven days that straddle your employer’s actual boundary can owe nothing at all, which is why the app asks you for the real one.
The threshold is only half of the arithmetic. The other half is the workweek: a fixed, recurring 168-hour period your employer designates, which can begin on any day at any hour and is usually printed on your stub. It decides which hours land past 40, and it is not necessarily the calendar week or your pay period. Two pay stubs covering the same seven days can owe different amounts if the workweek boundary sits in a different place.
Red is what crosses 8 hours in a single day.
Three twelve-hour shifts, the first one running an hour long. At $24.00 an hour, that is 37h across 3 days in California.
24h of it is straight time — $576.00. The 12h past 8 in a single day pay time and a half, $36.00 an hour — $432.00. The 1h past 12 in a single day pays double time, $48.00 an hour — $48.00. The week comes to $1,056.00.
The ledger in the calculator arranges the same money the way payroll does: every hour at the base rate first — $888.00 — and then the premium added on top of it. Same total, different bookkeeping. A tracker that multiplies $24.00 by every hour and stops there reports $888.00 for this week, which is $168.00 short.
Overtime rules do not reach every job. The best-known carve-outs are the executive, administrative and professional exemptions — the white-collar exemptions — and they turn on the work actually performed together with a salary basis and a salary level. Job titles are not part of the test: calling a shift lead a manager does not by itself change what the week owes, and neither does paying someone a salary.
Other categories sit outside the ordinary rule as well — outside sales, certain commissioned retail work, some drivers covered by the Motor Carrier Act, farm work, and a number of seasonal and transport jobs. The federal definitions are written out in 29 C.F.R. Part 541, linked in the sources below.
California writes its own coverage and exemptions too, and they are not a copy of the federal list — the statute in the sources is where they are set out. If the number above and your stub disagree and you are plainly covered, the difference is usually one of two things: the workweek your employer designated, or the regular rate — a bonus or a differential folded in, or left out.
Both. California counts hours past 8 inside a single workday and hours past 40 inside the workweek, and a week can trip one, the other, or neither. Both periods are fixed and designated by the employer — the workday is a 24-hour block, the workweek a recurring 168-hour one — which is why two people working identical shifts can be owed different premiums if their workweeks start on different days.
Yes. Each of those days runs 2 hours past the 8-hour line, so the week carries 8 premium hours even though it totals only 40 — and 40 is not past the weekly threshold, so every one of those premium hours comes from the daily rule.
Yes. Hours past 12 in a single workday pay twice the regular rate. A 14-hour day splits three ways: the first 8 at straight time, hours 8 to 12 at time and a half, and the last 2 at double.
The seventh consecutive day worked in one workweek is premium-rated whatever the week's total: the first eight hours at time and a half and every hour past eight at double. The count lives inside the workweek, so it resets at the workweek boundary — seven days in a row that straddle two workweeks can owe nothing under this rule.
No. California does not count the same hour twice. An hour already paid as daily overtime is taken out of the pot that decides whether you passed 40 for the week. Four 12-hour days are 48 hours: 16 of them are daily overtime, the other 32 are straight time, and because only 32 straight hours were counted, there is no weekly overtime at all. Adding a weekly calculation on top of the daily one overstates the week.
Usually, yes. The multiplier is applied to the regular rate, not to your base wage, and the regular rate takes in nondiscretionary bonuses, production and attendance bonuses, and shift differentials for the week they were earned. An overtime hour in a week with a night differential is worth more than base × 1.5. Bonuses that are genuinely discretionary — not promised in advance — stay out of it. The federal rules for building the regular rate are at 29 C.F.R. Part 778 and apply in California.
Not by itself. A salary is a way of paying, not an exemption. The white-collar exemptions turn on the work actually performed together with how and how much you are paid, and the duties tests at 29 C.F.R. Part 541 do not include job titles. A salaried employee whose duties fall outside those tests is owed overtime on the same 40-hour week as anyone else.
Rules stop at the state line, and the work often does not. These are the ones checked most often next to California.
Every figure on this page traces to the statute or agency page above. If one is out of date, tell us — corrections ship the same week.
Overtally computes what you should be paid before taxes. It does not calculate take-home pay, withholding or deductions, and it is not legal advice — it is your own record and your own estimate.