New Hampshire Overtime Pay Calculator

New Hampshire follows the federal Fair Labor Standards Act formula for overtime: time-and-a-half after 40 hours worked in a single workweek, with no state-mandated daily overtime. New Hampshire has kept its minimum wage tied to the federal floor of $7.25 an hour since 2011, making it one of the lowest minimum wages in New England, and its overtime rules similarly track federal law rather than adding state-specific enhancements.

New Hampshire law does add one distinctive protection: RSA 275:43-b requires that overtime and other wages be paid within a defined pay period after they're earned, and the state Department of Labor treats late payment of earned overtime as a wage violation separate from simply failing to pay it at all. New Hampshire also has specific rules requiring employers to provide written notice of pay rates and paydays, which helps workers verify whether their overtime was calculated correctly.

Because New Hampshire has no state income tax and a relatively thin regulatory layer on wages, workers often rely more heavily on federal FLSA protections and the state Department of Labor's wage claim process than on unique state statutes.

The New Hampshire Department of Labor accepts wage claims, including unpaid overtime, through its Wage and Hour division. Claims must generally be filed within three years of the violation under New Hampshire's wage claim statute, which is longer than the two-year federal default but matches the federal three-year window for willful violations. The agency can hold hearings and order restitution without requiring workers to go to court.

A common trap in New Hampshire's economy — heavy in tourism, hospitality, and seasonal retail near the Lakes Region and White Mountains — is misclassifying seasonal workers as independent contractors to avoid overtime altogether. New Hampshire applies an ABC-style test in some contexts for classification, and misclassified workers who are actually employees remain entitled to overtime regardless of what a contract calls them.

Tipped employees in New Hampshire can be paid a reduced cash wage as long as tips bring total pay up to at least the full minimum wage, and overtime for tipped workers must be calculated using the full minimum wage as the base rate, not the reduced tipped cash wage — a calculation employers frequently get wrong.

New Hampshire's overtime rule is essentially federal law with a state enforcement mechanism layered on top. There's no daily overtime, no higher state minimum wage to boost the regular rate, and no unique multiplier — the practical benefit of state law here is procedural: workers get access to a state agency and a three-year claims window rather than needing to go straight to the federal Department of Labor or court.

Workers who believe they're owed overtime in New Hampshire should still consider filing directly with the U.S. DOL's Wage and Hour Division in parallel for larger claims, since federal remedies can include liquidated (double) damages that New Hampshire's state process does not automatically provide.