What is the time-and-a-half rate on $22 an hour?

$33 per overtime hour — multiply the base rate by 1.5. Equivalently, each overtime hour pays the $22 base plus an $11 half-rate premium, which is how many paystubs display it.

Is overtime calculated per day or per week under federal law?

Per week. The FLSA threshold is 40 hours in a fixed 168-hour workweek, with no federal daily overtime. Some states add daily rules — California pays 1.5x after 8 hours in a day and 2x after 12 — so check your state before treating the weekly split as the whole answer.

Does being paid a salary mean I get no overtime?

No. Exemption requires meeting both the FLSA salary test and a duties test for an exempt category. A salaried worker who fails either test is non-exempt and still earns time and a half past 40 hours.

Do bonuses change my overtime pay?

Nondiscretionary bonuses, commissions, and shift differentials must be folded into the regular rate before the 1.5 multiplier is applied, which raises the overtime rate above 1.5 times the base wage alone.

Guides

How do I calculate overtime pay at time and a half?

By TimeLab · Published June 10, 2026 · Updated June 10, 2026

For a 46-hour week at $22 per hour, time and a half pays 40 regular hours at $22 ($880) plus 6 overtime hours at $33 ($198), for $1,078 gross under the federal 40-hour rule.

The time-and-a-half formula in three steps

Split, price, add. First split the week's hours at the threshold: everything up to 40 hours is regular time, everything past it is overtime. Then price each band — regular hours at your normal rate, overtime hours at 1.5 times that rate. Finally add the two bands. For 46 hours at $22 an hour, computed with the TimeLab overtime engine: regular pay is 40 × $22 = $880; the overtime rate is $22 × 1.5 = $33; overtime pay is 6 × $33 = $198; gross pay is $880 + $198 = $1,078.

The most common mistake is multiplying all 46 hours by 1.5, which would wrongly give $1,518 — the multiplier only touches the hours past the threshold. A second useful framing: each overtime hour pays your base rate plus a half-rate premium, $22 + $11 = $33 here. Paystubs often show that $11 line separately as an "OT premium" on top of straight time for all hours, and both presentations total the same $1,078.

Where the 40-hour rule comes from

The threshold is federal law, not convention. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires covered, non-exempt employees to receive overtime at not less than one and one-half times their regular rate for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek, as the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division explains on its overtime page. A workweek is a fixed, regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods — and it does not have to match the calendar week.

Two consequences follow. Overtime is computed week by week, so a 46-hour week followed by a 34-hour week still owes 6 overtime hours in the first week even though the two weeks average 40 — averaging across weeks is not allowed for hourly non-exempt workers. And federal law attaches no automatic premium to nights, weekends, or holidays as such; those hours earn time and a half only when they push the week past 40.

From clock-ins to the split — a worked time card

Here is how a real week reaches the 46-hour split. Monday through Thursday run 07:00 to 17:30 with a 30-minute unpaid break — 10.0 paid hours each — and Friday runs 08:00 to 14:00 with no break, 6.0 hours. Run through the TimeLab weekly time card engine at $22 an hour, the five shifts total exactly 46.0 hours and produce the same figures as above: $880 regular, $198 overtime, $1,078 gross.

The same arithmetic scales to any rate. A 50-hour week at $18 an hour splits into 40 regular hours ($720) plus 10 overtime hours at $27 ($270) for $990 gross. And a week that stays under the threshold has no overtime band at all: 38 hours at $22 is simply $836 of straight time, because the 1.5 multiplier never engages below 40 hours.

Time and a half applies to the regular rate, not just base pay

Under the FLSA, the 1.5 multiplier applies to the "regular rate" — which is generally all remuneration for the week divided by all hours worked, not just the posted hourly wage. Nondiscretionary bonuses, shift differentials, and commissions must be folded in before the overtime premium is computed, per the Department of Labor's regular rate guidance. On the 46-hour example, a $46 nondiscretionary weekly bonus would raise the regular rate by $1, which raises every overtime hour by $1.50.

The calculator models a single hourly rate, which is exact for workers paid one flat wage. If you regularly earn differentials or production bonuses, treat its output as the floor and expect the legally required figure to be slightly higher once those payments are rolled into the regular rate.

Exempt status and state rules change the answer

Not everyone is owed overtime. The FLSA exempts certain executive, administrative, professional, and other roles that meet both a salary test and a duties test — being paid a salary, or holding a manager title, does not by itself make a worker exempt, and many salaried employees remain non-exempt and overtime-eligible.

States can also be more generous than the federal floor. California is the canonical example: it adds daily overtime at 1.5 times pay after 8 hours in a single day and double time after 12, on top of the weekly threshold. Other states set their own daily or weekly rules. The TimeLab calculator implements the federal convention — a 40-hour weekly threshold at a 1.5 multiplier — so where state or contract rules apply, its result is the federal-baseline estimate, not a payroll or legal determination.

Questions

What is the time-and-a-half rate on $22 an hour?: $33 per overtime hour — multiply the base rate by 1.5. Equivalently, each overtime hour pays the $22 base plus an $11 half-rate premium, which is how many paystubs display it.
Is overtime calculated per day or per week under federal law?: Per week. The FLSA threshold is 40 hours in a fixed 168-hour workweek, with no federal daily overtime. Some states add daily rules — California pays 1.5x after 8 hours in a day and 2x after 12 — so check your state before treating the weekly split as the whole answer.
Does being paid a salary mean I get no overtime?: No. Exemption requires meeting both the FLSA salary test and a duties test for an exempt category. A salaried worker who fails either test is non-exempt and still earns time and a half past 40 hours.
Do bonuses change my overtime pay?: Nondiscretionary bonuses, commissions, and shift differentials must be folded into the regular rate before the 1.5 multiplier is applied, which raises the overtime rate above 1.5 times the base wage alone.