California Overtime Calculator

Daily overtime comes first. Weekly overtime then applies only to regular hours: the Industrial Welfare Commission said that hours used to calculate daily overtime "are not counted in the determination of 40-hour workweek overtime compensation," so there is no pyramiding. Take five 10-hour days and a 5-hour Saturday at $20 an hour:

Pay is 40 × $20 + 15 × $30 = $1,250.00. Adding 10 daily hours to 15 weekly hours (55 − 40) would count the weekday overtime twice and overstate the week by $100. Compare a single 14-hour day: it pays 8 hours regular, 4 at time and a half, and 2 at double time, or $360.00 at $20, even though federal law would pay that day at straight time.

When an employee works all seven days of a workweek, the seventh day pays premium rates from the first hour: 1.5x for the first 8 hours and 2x after that. Seven days in a row that straddle two workweeks do not trigger it, because the rule counts the seventh consecutive day of work in one workweek.

Seven 9-hour days at $20 an hour (63 hours) work out to 40 regular hours, 22 hours at time and a half (1 daily hour on each of the first six days, 8 hours past 40 on day six, and the first 8 hours of day seven), and 1 hour of double time on day seven. Total pay is $1,500.00. The seventh-day premium applies even in a short week: six 4-hour days plus 8 hours on the seventh day pay that last day at 1.5x.

A salaried employee in California is exempt from overtime only when the job meets an executive, administrative, or professional duties test and the salary is at least twice the state minimum wage for full-time work. For 2026 that is $16.90 × 2 × 2,080 hours = $70,304 a year ($1,352 a week). From January 1, 2027 the minimum wage is $17.40 and the threshold $72,384. Both are well above the federal $684 a week.

For a salaried non-exempt employee, the regular rate is 1/40 of the weekly salary, and the salary pays only the regular, non-overtime hours, whatever a private agreement says (Labor Code § 515(d)). A $1,000 weekly salary is $25 an hour, so five 10-hour days add 10 × $37.50 = $375. California does not allow the federal fluctuating workweek, where an employer pays only half-time on top of a salary.

An employer can adopt an alternative workweek schedule, such as four 10-hour days, if at least two-thirds of the affected employees approve it in a secret-ballot election held before the work starts (Labor Code § 511 and the wage orders). Under a valid schedule, up to 10 scheduled hours a day are paid at straight time. Hours beyond the scheduled day, up to 12, and hours over 40 in the week are paid at 1.5x. Hours over 12 in a day, and hours over 8 on days worked beyond the scheduled number of workdays, are paid at 2x.

This calculator assumes the standard 8-hour day. If your employer runs a valid alternative workweek, treat the result as an upper bound, and check the election paperwork filed with the Division of Labor Statistics and Research.

The regular rate includes hourly pay, shift differentials, commissions, and nondiscretionary bonuses. California treats a flat-sum bonus, such as a fixed attendance bonus, differently from federal law: divide it by the regular, non-overtime hours in the bonus period, then pay 1.5x or 2x that amount for each overtime hour (DLSE overtime FAQ; Alvarado v. Dart Container, 2018). Production bonuses are divided by all hours worked and earn an extra 0.5x or 1x per overtime hour. To include either, add its hourly value to the rate you enter above, or use the regular-rate mode on the overtime pay calculator for the federal method.

The federal deduction for tax years 2025 through 2028 covers only qualified overtime compensation: the premium the FLSA requires above the regular rate, which is half the rate for each hour over 40 in the workweek. California's daily overtime, double time, and seventh-day premiums are real wages, but the IRS says pay above what the FLSA requires does not qualify.

In the seven 9-hour days example, the California premium is $240.00, but only 23 hours over 40 × $10 = $230.00 qualifies. A worker with one 14-hour day in a 38-hour week earns $80.00 of California premium and none of it qualifies. Employers report the qualified amount on the 2026 Form W-2 in box 12 with code TT, so California payrolls need to track the federal premium separately from the state one. The overtime tax calculator shows what the deduction saves.