Overtime Gross Pay: What Your Week Earns Before Deductions (2026)
Gross pay with overtime is two numbers added together, not one rate times all your hours. How to build the figure your stub should show, line by line.
Gross Pay Is Two Numbers, Not One
Gross pay is everything you earned in the period before a single deduction comes out. When a week contains overtime, it is built from two separate pieces:
- . Straight-time pay: your regular hours at your regular rate
- . Overtime pay: your overtime hours at one and a half times that rate
Take $24 an hour and 47 hours. Straight time is 40 x $24 = $960. Overtime is 7 x $36 = $252. Gross pay is $1,212.
The common mistake is multiplying all 47 hours by $24 ($1,128) and wondering where $84 went. The other common mistake is multiplying all 47 hours by $36 — flattering, and equally wrong.
Gross Pay Is Not Take-Home Pay
Gross is the top line. Federal withholding, Social Security, Medicare, state income tax where it applies, plus health premiums and retirement contributions all come out below it.
| Line | Amount |
| --- | --- |
| Straight time (40 x $24) | $960.00 |
| Overtime (7 x $36) | $252.00 |
| Gross pay | $1,212.00 |
| Estimated withholding | -$248.00 |
| Approximate net | $964.00 |
Build the gross figure in the gross pay calculator, then run the same week through the overtime tax calculator to see what actually lands in your account.
What Belongs in the Rate You Multiply By
Overtime is 1.5 times your *regular rate*, and the regular rate is broader than your posted wage. Shift differentials, non-discretionary bonuses, piece-rate earnings and most commissions belong inside it.
A $24 wage with a $60 attendance bonus in a 47-hour week has a regular rate near $25.28, not $24 — so every overtime hour is worth about $1.92 more. The overtime bonus calculator prices that gap.
Gross Pay Across Longer Periods
Biweekly and semi-monthly checks still measure overtime by the workweek. Two weeks of 47 hours are not one 94-hour period; each week is calculated on its own, then added. Averaging the two weeks is one of the most expensive payroll errors there is.
Check the Stub, Not the Rumor
A compliant stub separates regular hours, overtime hours and the rate paid for each. If yours shows one blended rate over all hours, rebuild the week in the weekly overtime earnings calculator and compare. A difference larger than rounding is worth raising with payroll in writing.
Sources and further reading
Every rule in this guide traces back to a primary source. Verify the current text before acting on it — wage rules change.
- Fact Sheet #23: Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA — U.S. Department of Labor
- 29 CFR 778.107 — General standard for overtime pay — Code of Federal Regulations
About the author
Payroll & Labor Law Researcher
Javed builds and maintains the overtime calculators on this site and reads the underlying statutes so you do not have to. He tracks FLSA regulations, state wage orders and annual minimum-wage changes across all 50 states, and rewrites every rule into plain English with a worked example.
- FLSA overtime rules
- State wage & hour law
- Regular rate calculations
- Payroll compliance
Reviewed by Overtime Pay Calculator USA Editorial Team. Every guide is checked line by line against primary sources — the Fair Labor Standards Act, U.S. Department of Labor fact sheets and opinion letters, and each state labor department's current wage order — before it is published, and again whenever rates change. Read our editorial policy or report a correction.
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