Blended Overtime Rate Calculator
Add each job's rate and hours to get the FLSA weighted-average regular rate, the overtime hours past 40, and the half-time premium you actually owe.
Blended Overtime Rate Calculator
Pay rates this workweek
Maximum 5 rate rows.
With one rate, the blended rate is just that rate. The half-time premium math below is still how overtime is owed.
A $0 rate will lower the blended rate. Every hour worked for an employer generally has to be paid at or above the applicable federal, state, or local minimum wage.
That is more hours than there are in a week. Check the entries.
Nondiscretionary bonus (optional)
Production, attendance, safety, and shift bonuses that were promised in advance must be added to the regular rate (29 CFR 778.208). Truly discretionary bonuses, the ones decided on after the fact with no promise, are excluded. The bonus goes into the numerator once; it is never multiplied by hours.
Per-job contribution
| Job or role | Hours | Rate | Straight time | Share |
|---|
The blended rate is carried to four decimals. Rounding it to the nearest cent before multiplying can under-state or over-state the premium.
No overtime this week. The blended rate is still shown, but nothing extra is owed under the 40-hour rule.
Shown for comparison only. Because straight time on the overtime hours is already inside the earnings figure above, only the extra half-time is added.
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How the FLSA weighted-average regular rate works
When an employee works two or more jobs at different straight-time rates for the same employer in one workweek, federal overtime is not based on the rate of whichever job they were doing at hour 41. It is based on the weighted average of all the rates they worked that week. That weighted average is the blended regular rate.
Where an employee in a single workweek works at two or more different types of work for which different nonovertime rates of pay (of not less than the applicable minimum wage) have been established, his regular rate for that week is the weighted average of such rates. That is, his total earnings (except statutory exclusions) are computed to include his compensation during the workweek from all such rates, and are then divided by the total number of hours worked at all jobs. (29 CFR 778.115)
Three moving parts feed it, and the calculation runs in this order:
- Straight-time earnings: the sum of rate times hours for every job
- Total hours: the sum of hours across every job
- Regular rate: (straight-time earnings + nondiscretionary bonus) divided by total hours
- Overtime hours: total hours minus 40, floored at zero (29 USC 207(a)(1))
- Half-time premium: 0.5 times the regular rate times the overtime hours
- Total weekly gross: straight time + bonus + half-time premium
The blended rate is a property of the week, not of the employee. Shift a few hours from the lower-paying job to the higher-paying one and the rate moves, so it has to be recomputed every workweek. If the whole week ran at one rate, the overtime pay calculator gets there with less setup. This page exists to prevent the two errors that dominate multi-rate payroll: using the rate of the job worked at hour 41, and the multiplier mistake covered further down.
Worked example: two rates plus a weekly bonus
A restaurant employee works two roles for the same employer in one workweek and earns a promised $75 attendance bonus.
| Job | Rate | Hours | Straight-time earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Server | $16.50 | 26 | $429.00 |
| Bartender | $21.00 | 22 | $462.00 |
| Totals | 48 | $891.00 |
- Straight-time earnings. (26 x $16.50) + (22 x $21.00) = $429.00 + $462.00 = $891.00
- Add the nondiscretionary bonus. $891.00 + $75.00 = $966.00
- Blended regular rate. $966.00 divided by 48 hours = $20.1250/hr
- Overtime hours. 48 minus 40 = 8 hours
- Half-time premium. 0.5 x $20.1250 x 8 = $80.50
- Total weekly gross. $891.00 + $75.00 + $80.50 = $1,046.50
Cross-check with the other framing. ($20.1250 x 40) + (1.5 x $20.1250 x 8) = $805.00 + $241.50 = $1,046.50. Same answer, arrived at from the opposite direction.
What the bonus really costs. Drop the $75 and the regular rate falls to $891.00 divided by 48 = $18.5625, the premium falls to 0.5 x $18.5625 x 8 = $74.25, and total gross is $965.25. So the $75 bonus cost $81.25 in total, not $75. The extra $6.25 is the premium the bonus itself generated ($80.50 minus $74.25). A bonus paid in a week with no overtime raises the regular rate and the gross, but adds nothing to the premium, because there are no over-40 hours to apply it to.
1.5x or 0.5x? Settling the multiplier argument
Both multipliers turn up in published explanations, and both can be right. What decides it is whether your straight-time line already covers every hour worked. Because the regular rate times total hours equals straight time plus bonus, the two framings are algebraically the same thing:
straight time + bonus + 0.5 x RR x OT = RR x 40 + 1.5 x RR x OT
Left side: pay every hour at its own job rate, then add half-time on the hours past 40. Right side: reprice the first 40 hours at the blended rate, then pay the overtime hours at time-and-a-half. Identical totals whenever total hours exceed 40.
The error is mixing them: taking straight time from the left side and the 1.5 x RR x OT term from the right. That pays the overtime hours at 2.5x.
| Method | Calculation | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Correct: half-time on top of full straight time | $891.00 + $75.00 + (0.5 x $20.1250 x 8) | $1,046.50 |
| Correct: blended rate on 40, time-and-a-half on OT | ($20.1250 x 40) + (1.5 x $20.1250 x 8) | $1,046.50 |
| Wrong: full straight time plus a 1.5x premium | $891.00 + $75.00 + (1.5 x $20.1250 x 8) | $1,207.50 |
That is $161.00 too much, every week, for one employee. The mistake is published: one explainer still in circulation runs 30 hours at $20 plus 15 hours at $30, a $1,050 straight-time figure and a $23.3333 regular rate, and reports $1,225 owed. The correct answer is $1,050 + (0.5 x $23.3333 x 5) = $1,108.33, an overpayment of $116.67 per week per employee.
The practical rule: look at what your straight-time line already covers. If it covers every hour worked, you add 0.5. Anything else double-pays. This is also why the calculator carries the blended rate to four decimals. The regular rate is an intermediate figure, and rounding it to the nearest cent before multiplying by 0.5 and the overtime hours can move the premium by cents, which is exactly the drift that surfaces in a wage audit.
When the weighted average is not the only option
Section 7(g)(2) of the FLSA, implemented at 29 CFR 778.415 through 778.419, allows an employer and an hourly employee working two or more kinds of work at different straight-time rates to agree in advance of the work that overtime hours are paid at not less than 1.5 times the bona fide rate for the work actually performed during those hours, instead of 1.5 times the weighted average. Three conditions have to hold together: the rate has to be a bona fide rate (at or above the applicable minimum and the rate genuinely paid for that work in non-overtime hours), the hours have to qualify as overtime hours under section 7(e)(5), (6), or (7), and the number of hours paid at the overtime rate has to equal or exceed the hours over the maximum-hours standard.
It is not a toggle on this page, and it is not automatically cheaper. Take the example above without the bonus. If all 8 overtime hours were bartending at $21.00, the rate-in-effect method pays (26 x $16.50) + (14 x $21.00) + (8 x 1.5 x $21.00) = $429.00 + $294.00 + $252.00 = $975.00, against $891.00 + (0.5 x $18.5625 x 8) = $965.25 under the weighted average. Here the alternative costs $9.75 more, because the overtime landed in the higher-paying job. No advance agreement? Use the weighted average. It is the default, and it is what this calculator computes.
Two closing notes. State rules sit on top of the federal weekly calculation rather than replacing it: California adds daily overtime after 8 hours, double time after 12, and the seventh-consecutive-day rule, so run those through the California overtime calculator. And this is wage-and-hour law, not withholding. The blended rate sets gross pay; income tax and FICA withholding run off the resulting gross afterward. A night premium counts as a second rate too, which is the most common accidental two-rate week, so price it in the shift differential calculator and bring the result back to the rows above.
This page prices one worker's week. When you need multiple overtime entries per employee and the whole team's payroll from one screen, the WorkLogs44 Payroll Calculator app keeps decimal-precise, per-employee payroll across all 50 states plus DC.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about blended overtime rate calculator
How do you calculate overtime with two different pay rates?
Add up what was earned at each rate (rate times hours for each job), add any nondiscretionary bonus for that week, then divide by total hours worked. That is the blended regular rate. Multiply it by 0.5 and by the hours worked over 40, and that half-time premium is what the second rate structure adds on top of straight-time pay. The rule comes from 29 CFR 778.115: when someone works at two or more rates in one workweek, the regular rate for that week is the weighted average of those rates, not the rate of whichever job they happened to be doing at hour 41.
Is the blended rate multiplied by 1.5 or 0.5?
It depends on what you have already paid, and this is where most payroll errors start. If straight time has already been paid on every hour worked, including the overtime hours, you add only the extra half: 0.5 times the blended rate times the overtime hours. If instead you strip the overtime hours out and price the first 40 hours at the blended rate, those overtime hours get the full 1.5 times the blended rate. Both routes land on the same total. What you must never do is pay all hours straight time and then add 1.5 times the blended rate on the overtime hours, because that pays overtime hours at 2.5x. This calculator uses the 0.5 route, since straight-time earnings is the figure payroll systems actually produce.
Do bonuses go into the regular rate?
Nondiscretionary bonuses do. Under 29 CFR 778.208, bonuses that do not qualify for a statutory exclusion "must be totaled in with other earnings to determine the regular rate on which overtime pay must be based." Production, attendance, safety, quality, and shift bonuses (anything promised in advance, so the employee expects it) go into the numerator before you divide by total hours. Genuinely discretionary bonuses, where the employer decides both the fact and the amount after the fact with no promise, stay out, as do gifts on special occasions. The bonus is added once, in the numerator, and is never multiplied by hours.
What is a blended (weighted average) overtime rate?
It is the single hourly rate the FLSA treats as the regular rate for a week in which someone was paid at more than one rate. It is total straight-time earnings for the week, plus qualifying bonuses, divided by total hours worked. Because it is weighted by hours, it always lands between the lowest and highest rate, closer to whichever job took more hours. Working a single rate all week? The overtime pay calculator is the simpler tool.
Which rate applies if the overtime hours were all in the lower-paying job?
Under the default weighted-average rule it does not matter which job the over-40 hours fell in, because the premium is based on the blended rate for the whole week. The only exception is the "rate in effect" method in 29 CFR 778.415 through 778.419, which lets overtime be paid at 1.5 times the bona fide rate for the work actually performed in those hours. It requires an agreement reached in advance of the work, and the rate used has to be the rate genuinely paid for that work in non-overtime hours. Without that advance agreement, use the weighted average.
Does the blended rate have to be recalculated every week?
Yes. The FLSA regular rate is a workweek figure. A different mix of hours across the jobs in a different week produces a different blended rate, so it has to be recomputed each workweek for every employee who worked more than one rate. Averaging two weeks together, even inside a biweekly pay cycle, is not permitted.
Does this apply to shift differentials and salaried nonexempt employees?
Shift differentials are a second rate, so yes: a $2 an hour night premium creates a two-rate week and pulls the regular rate up. The shift differential calculator prices the differential itself, and the result belongs in the rows above as its own rate. For salaried nonexempt employees who also work at an hourly rate, first convert the salary to its straight-time equivalent for the hours it is meant to cover, then blend. If the second "rate" is itself an overtime premium already paid, it is excluded from the regular rate rather than blended into it.
Does California use the same blended overtime math?
Not entirely. California uses the same weighted-average concept for the regular rate, but layers on daily overtime after 8 hours, double time after 12, and the seventh-consecutive-day rule, so a California week can owe premium pay even when total hours stay under 40. Use this page for the federal weekly rule and the California overtime calculator for the daily rules. Other states with daily-overtime rules (Alaska, Nevada, and Colorado among them) work the same way: the federal weekly calculation is a floor, not a ceiling.