How to Calculate Overtime in California: Regular Rate and 1.5× or 2× Pay

To calculate overtime in California, first find your regular rate of pay for the workweek, then apply 1.5 times that rate to hours worked beyond eight in a day, beyond 40 in a week, and the first eight hours of a seventh consecutive workday, and 2 times that rate to hours beyond 12 in a day or beyond eight on a seventh consecutive workday.¹ Daily and weekly thresholds trigger independently, so track hours against each. The steps below walk through the math.

First, Confirm You Qualify

Nearly all California workers are non-exempt and entitled to overtime. The main exemption covers executive, administrative, and professional employees whose primary duties involve management, independent judgment, or advanced specialized knowledge, and who earn a monthly salary of at least twice the state minimum wage.²

With the state minimum wage at $16.90 per hour as of January 1, 2026, that salary floor works out to $70,304 per year.³ If you earn less than that on salary, you are non-exempt no matter what your title says. Outside salespeople, close family members of the business owner, certain unionized workers under qualifying collective bargaining agreements, and drivers regulated by DOT hours-of-service rules also fall outside the overtime rules; the full list is maintained by the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.⁴

Set Your Workday and Workweek

Every overtime calculation depends on when your workday and workweek start and end. Under Labor Code Section 500, a workday is any consecutive 24-hour period beginning at the same time each calendar day, and a workweek is any seven consecutive days beginning on the same calendar day each week — a fixed 168-hour period set by your employer.⁵ Neither has to start at midnight or on a Monday.

Check your handbook, onboarding paperwork, or timekeeping system to find your employer’s designated periods. Where an employer never formally sets them, the Labor Commissioner presumes a workday running from 12:01 a.m. to midnight. If you assume a Monday-to-Sunday week when your employer runs Sunday-to-Saturday, your weekly totals will land on the wrong hours and you can miss overtime you are owed.

What Counts as Hours Worked

Travel between job sites during the workday counts as hours worked, and so does travel to a one-day out-of-town assignment (minus your ordinary commute time). Your normal commute from home to your regular workplace does not count.⁶ Mandatory meetings and employer-required training are compensable; training is only excluded when attendance is voluntary, occurs outside your regular hours, and comes from an independent educational program the employer does not control.⁷

Find Your Regular Rate of Pay

Your regular rate is the foundation of every overtime calculation, and it is often higher than your base hourly wage. California requires employers to include virtually all compensation: hourly earnings, shift differentials, commissions, and non-discretionary bonuses.⁸

Which Bonuses Get Added In

A bonus is non-discretionary — and must be included — when the employer has committed to paying it in advance. Bonuses tied to attendance, production, efficiency, or continued employment all qualify. A bonus is truly discretionary only when the employer decides both whether to pay and how much at or near the end of the period, with no prior promise.⁹ Holiday gifts and year-end bonuses that aren’t tied to hours, production, or efficiency can typically be excluded.

The Formula for Hourly Workers

Add all qualifying compensation for the workweek — base pay, shift differentials, non-discretionary bonuses, and commissions — then divide by hours worked.

Say you earn $20 per hour and work 40 hours, for $800 in base pay, and you receive a $100 production bonus. Your regular rate is $900 ÷ 40 = $22.50 per hour. Every overtime calculation that week runs off $22.50, not $20. Skip the bonus and you understate your overtime.

Two Rates for the Same Employer

If you work two different jobs for one employer at different hourly rates in the same workweek, use the weighted average. Add total earnings across all rates and divide by total hours.¹⁰ Twenty hours at $18 plus 25 hours at $22 is $910 across 45 hours, or $20.22 per hour.

Salaried Non-Exempt Workers

If you earn a salary but fall below the $70,304 exempt threshold, convert to an hourly rate: divide your annual salary by 52 weeks, then by 40 hours. A non-exempt salaried worker at $52,000 per year has a regular rate of $25.00 per hour ($52,000 ÷ 52 ÷ 40). Apply the multipliers to that.

Apply the 1.5× Rate

Multiply your regular rate by 1.5. California requires this time-and-a-half premium for three categories of hours:¹

Hours worked beyond eight but not exceeding 12 in a single workday
Hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek
The first eight hours worked on a seventh consecutive day in the same workweek

Using the $22.50 regular rate above, the time-and-a-half rate is $33.75. On a 10-hour day, the first eight hours pay $22.50 and the last two pay $33.75, adding $67.50 in overtime premium to that shift.

Daily and weekly overtime don’t stack. Hours you already counted as daily overtime don’t generate a second premium when tallied for the week. The law doesn’t require paying two overtime rates on the same hour.

Apply the 2× Rate

Multiply your regular rate by 2.0 for double time. It applies in two situations:⁸

Every hour past 12 in a single workday
Every hour past eight on a seventh consecutive workday in the same workweek

At the $22.50 regular rate, double time is $45.00. A 14-hour day breaks down like this: eight hours at $22.50 ($180.00), four hours at $33.75 for hours nine through twelve ($135.00), and two hours at $45.00 for hours thirteen and fourteen ($90.00). Gross pay for the day: $405.00.

Piece-Rate and Commission Overtime

Piece-rate and commission workers qualify for overtime, but the math is different. Because your piece-rate or commission earnings already pay you for every hour worked — including the overtime hours — the premium you add is only the extra half-time (0.5×) for time-and-a-half hours, or the extra full-time (1.0×) for double-time hours.¹¹

Add up your total piece-rate or commission earnings for the workweek.
Divide by total hours worked to find your regular rate.
Multiply the regular rate by 0.5, then by the number of overtime hours, to find the premium.

Example: you earn $800 in piece-rate pay over a 47-hour week with seven overtime hours. Regular rate: $800 ÷ 47 = $17.02. Overtime premium: $17.02 × 0.5 × 7 = $59.57. Total pay: $859.57. Commission earnings work the same way — divide total commissions by total hours, then pay the half-time premium on overtime hours.⁸

When an Alternative Schedule or Makeup Time Changes the Trigger

California lets employers adopt alternative workweek schedules, such as four 10-hour days, that allow longer daily shifts without daily overtime. These schedules require a formal employee vote and must be filed with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. Where a valid alternative schedule is in place, the standard daily overtime rules under Section 510 don’t apply to the agreed shift length, though hours beyond the scheduled shift or beyond 40 in the week still trigger overtime.¹

Makeup time works differently. If you need personal time off during the week, you can make up those hours without overtime, but only under specific conditions: a signed written request from you for each occasion, the makeup hours worked in the same workweek as the missed time, and no more than 11 hours in a day or 40 in the week.¹² Your employer cannot push you to take time off and make it up; the request has to come from you.

If Your Math Shows You Were Underpaid

Compare your calculated overtime against what appears on your pay stubs. If the numbers don’t match and your employer won’t correct it, you can file a wage claim with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office (the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement). Claims can be submitted online, by email, by mail, or in person, and you have three years from the date of the violation to file for unpaid overtime.¹³

Beyond the wages themselves, California law allows recovery of interest and reasonable attorney fees on overtime claims. If your employer willfully fails to pay all wages owed when you leave a job, a separate waiting time penalty may apply, equal to your daily rate of pay for each day the wages go unpaid, up to 30 days.¹⁴

1
California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 510
2
California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 515
3
California Department of Industrial Relations. California’s Minimum Wage Set to Increase to $16.90 Per Hour
4
California Department of Industrial Relations. Exemptions From the Overtime Laws
5
Justia Law. California Code LAB 500-558
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 22 – Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
7
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Hours Worked Advisor – Lectures, Meetings and Training Programs
8
California Department of Industrial Relations. Overtime
9
eCFR. Part 778 Subpart C – Payments That May Be Excluded From the Regular Rate
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 23 – Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA
11
California Department of Industrial Relations. Piece-Rate Compensation – Labor Code 226.2 (AB 1513)
12
California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 513
13
California Department of Industrial Relations. How to File a Wage Claim
14
California Department of Industrial Relations. Waiting Time Penalties