Overtime Planning Calculator
Work overtime on purpose instead of by accident. Enter a savings goal and see the after-tax hours it takes, or switch to budget mode and see how many overtime hours a team can afford before the schedule blows up.
Your Goal
Your Plan
Enter your numbers and press calculate to see a weekly overtime target you can actually schedule.
Estimates only. Actual withholding depends on your W-4, state tax, and pre-tax deductions; daily-overtime states can raise the premium further.
Plan overtime backwards from the money
Almost everyone plans overtime the wrong way round: they take whatever hours appear, then find out on payday whether it was worth it. Planning backwards from a number — a debt payoff, a deposit, a holiday — turns an open-ended grind into a finite project with a visible finish line. The math is simple: after-tax overtime rate, divided into the target, spread across the weeks you have.
Why the after-tax rate matters more than the gross
Overtime is not taxed at a special rate, but it stacks on top of your regular pay, so it is withheld at your highest marginal rate. That is why an extra $37.50 an hour often feels like $27 in the bank. Using the gross rate for planning consistently overstates what you will actually keep by 20 to 30 percent. Cross-check the deductions with the overtime tax calculator and the paycheck calculator.
For managers: budget the premium, not the hours
When you plan an overtime budget, separate the two components. The straight-time portion is work you needed done anyway; the extra 50 percent is the real premium you are paying for flexibility. Tracking the premium alone shows the true cost of understaffing and makes the hire-versus-overtime conversation concrete instead of political. Pair it with the employee schedule calculator and the downloadable payroll checklists.
Frequently asked questions
Planning overtime hours, taxes, budgets, and healthy limits.
Related Planning Tools
Calculate Overtime by State
Select your state for accurate 2026 overtime calculations