What Is Time and a Half? (2026)

Time and a half is an overtime pay rate equal to 1.5 times your regular rate of pay. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, it is the minimum you must be paid for every hour you work over 40 in a workweek. If you earn $20 an hour, time and a half is $30 an hour. The idea is simple. The details, especially what "regular rate" means and when the 40-hour threshold is crossed, are where paychecks go wrong.

The rate math

Multiply your hourly rate by 1.5. That is the time-and-a-half rate. Multiply that rate by your overtime hours for the overtime pay.

A worker at $18 an hour who works 44 hours in a week earns 40 × $18 = $720 for the regular hours and 4 × $27 = $108 for the overtime hours, $828 in total. If the stub shows $792, every hour was paid at straight time and $36 is missing.

Another way to see it: overtime pay is straight-time pay for all hours plus a half-time premium on the overtime hours. 44 × $18 = $792, plus 4 × $9 = $36, is the same $828. Payroll systems and Department of Labor investigators often work it this second way, and it is the method that handles bonuses correctly.

When time and a half applies

Federal overtime starts after 40 hours of work in a workweek. A workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring block of 168 hours, seven consecutive days, chosen by the employer. It does not have to match the calendar week or the pay period.

Three things people often believe trigger time and a half, but do not under federal law:

• Working more than 8 hours in a day. There is no federal daily overtime. A 12-hour shift followed by three days off is 12 regular hours.
• Working weekends or holidays. Saturday, Sunday and holiday hours are ordinary hours unless they push the weekly total past 40. Premium pay for those days is a matter of employer policy or a union contract.
• Being paid on a biweekly basis. Each workweek stands alone. 45 hours one week and 35 the next is 5 hours of overtime, not zero.

Paid time off does not count toward the 40. A week with 36 hours worked and an 8-hour paid holiday is 44 hours of pay and zero overtime.

Regular rate, not base rate

The 1.5 multiplier applies to your regular rate, and the regular rate is not always your hourly wage. It is everything you earned for the week, with a few exclusions, divided by the hours you worked. That includes shift differentials, nondiscretionary bonuses such as attendance or production bonuses, and commissions.

Say you earn $16 an hour with a $2 night differential on every hour, and you worked 48 hours this week.

• Straight-time pay: 48 × $18 = $864.
• Regular rate: $864 ÷ 48 = $18.
• Overtime premium: 8 × $18 × 0.5 = $72.
• Gross: $936.

If payroll computes time and a half on the $16 base only, the overtime premium is 8 × $8 = $64 and you are short $8 that week. The same thing happens with a $50 weekly attendance bonus: the bonus gets spread over the hours, the regular rate rises, and the overtime premium rises with it.

Excluded from the regular rate are gifts, truly discretionary bonuses, expense reimbursements, pay for time not worked, and premium pay that is already at least time and a half.

Time and a half for tipped workers

If your employer takes a tip credit, your overtime is figured on the full minimum wage, then the tip credit is subtracted from the result. Under federal rules that is 1.5 × $7.25 = $10.88, minus the $5.12 tip credit, which leaves $5.76 in cash wages for each overtime hour. Employers sometimes multiply the $2.13 cash wage by 1.5 instead, which is about $3.20 and is wrong.

Double time

Double time is twice the regular rate. The FLSA never requires it. California requires double time after 12 hours in a workday and after 8 hours on the seventh consecutive day worked in a workweek. Beyond that, double time comes from contracts and company policies, often for holidays.

State rules that start overtime sooner

A handful of states require time and a half before you reach 40 hours in a week. California pays 1.5 times the regular rate after 8 hours in a day, Alaska and Nevada have daily overtime after 8 hours in most cases, and Colorado after 12 hours in a day. Where a state rule is more generous than the federal one, the state rule applies. Daily and weekly overtime are never paid twice for the same hour.

Who does not get time and a half

Exempt employees, mostly salaried managers, professionals and administrators who meet a duties test and a salary threshold, are not owed overtime. A salary alone does not make you exempt. If you are salaried and your duties do not meet an exemption, you are owed time and a half on a regular rate equal to your salary divided by the hours it covers.

Checking your stub

Count your actual hours for each workweek in the pay period, not the hours on the schedule. Subtract 40. Compute the regular rate including any differential or bonus. Multiply the overtime hours by the regular rate by 1.5, add the regular pay, and compare with the gross on the stub. If the gap repeats in the same direction every period, keep your own record of punches and raise it with payroll first, then with your state labor department or the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.