Unpaid Overtime Calculator
Federal law requires overtime pay for hours over a weekly threshold, and an employer that does not pay it owes the unpaid amount and liquidated damages on top. This page quotes the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Department of Labor's regulations, and the calculator below applies them to your hours and rate.
The rule itself: no covered employer may employ an employee “for a workweek longer than forty hours unless such employee receives compensation for his employment in excess of the hours above specified at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which he is employed.” (29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1))
Estimate your unpaid overtime under federal law
Enter your hourly rate, the hours you worked in a typical week, what the extra hours were paid and the number of weeks. The calculator applies the federal overtime rate and the liquidated damages the statute adds, and shows each step.
Your hourly pay. If you are paid another way, the regulation quoted below says how an hourly rate is derived; enter that rate.
All the hours you actually worked in the workweek.
Weeks like this one. Count only weeks inside the limitation period quoted below.
Unpaid overtime and liquidated damages
Enter your rate, your weekly hours and the number of weeks to see the figure.
This applies the federal overtime rate to the hours and rate you enter. It does not decide whether you are covered or exempt, compute a regular rate from a salary, bonus or commission, apply a state's law, or count unpaid minimum wages for the hours up to the threshold.
How unpaid overtime is figured
The regulation states the standard: “The general overtime pay standard in section 7(a) requires that overtime must be compensated at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which the employee is actually employed.” (29 C.F.R. § 778.107) And it sets a floor: “The regular rate of pay at which the employee is employed may in no event be less than the statutory minimum.” (29 C.F.R. § 778.107)
The federal minimum the floor refers to is “$7.25 an hour, beginning 24 months after that 60th day;” (29 U.S.C. § 206(a)(1)(C)) and a state can require more, which this page did not read.
The regular rate is hourly: the regular rate “under the Act is a rate per hour.” (29 C.F.R. § 778.109) “The Act does not require employers to compensate employees on an hourly rate basis; their earnings may be determined on a piece-rate, salary, commission, or other basis, but in such case the overtime compensation due to employees must be computed on the basis of the hourly rate derived therefrom” (29 C.F.R. § 778.109) “The regular hourly rate of pay of an employee is determined by dividing his total remuneration for employment (except statutory exclusions) in any workweek by the total number of hours actually worked by him in that workweek for which such compensation was paid.” (29 C.F.R. § 778.109)
So the calculator takes the hours over 40 in each week, multiplies them by one and one-half times your regular rate, and subtracts what you were paid for those hours.
Unpaid overtime and liquidated damages
The statute makes the employer liable twice over: “Any employer who violates the provisions of section 206 or section 207 of this title shall be liable to the employee or employees affected in the amount of their unpaid minimum wages, or their unpaid overtime compensation, as the case may be, and in an additional equal amount as liquidated damages.” (29 U.S.C. § 216(b))
A court can reduce the second part: “if the employer shows to the satisfaction of the court that the act or omission giving rise to such action was in good faith and that he had reasonable grounds for believing that his act or omission was not a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended, the court may, in its sound discretion, award no liquidated damages or award any amount thereof not to exceed the amount specified in section 216 of this title.” (29 U.S.C. § 260)
And fees: “The court in such action shall, in addition to any judgment awarded to the plaintiff or plaintiffs, allow a reasonable attorney's fee to be paid by the defendant, and costs of the action.” (29 U.S.C. § 216(b)) The calculator does not add them.
An unpaid overtime calculator example
Say you are paid $20.00 an hour, work 50 hours a week for 52 weeks, and the hours over 40 were paid at straight time. Each week 10 hours were due at $300.00 and paid $200.00, leaving $100.00 unpaid. Over the weeks that is $5,200.00, and with an equal amount of liquidated damages, $10,400.00.
If those hours were not paid at all, each week leaves $300.00 unpaid, $15,600.00 over the weeks, and $31,200.00 with liquidated damages.
How far back an unpaid overtime claim reaches
The Portal-to-Portal Act sets the period: an action “may be commenced within two years after the cause of action accrued, and every such action shall be forever barred unless commenced within two years after the cause of action accrued, except that a cause of action arising out of a willful violation may be commenced within three years after the cause of action accrued;” (29 U.S.C. § 255(a))
The period counts from when the cause of action accrued, so weeks older than the period can be out of reach. Count only the weeks inside it, and act early.
Who is not owed federal overtime
The Act exempts some employees from the overtime rule, among them “any employee employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity (including any employee employed in the capacity of academic administrative personnel or teacher in elementary or secondary schools), or in the capacity of outside salesman” (29 U.S.C. § 213(a)(1)), as the Secretary's regulations define those terms. Whether a job is exempt turns on those regulations, which this page did not read, so the calculator does not decide it.
What this calculator does not do
It does not decide whether you are covered or exempt, compute a regular rate from a salary, bonus or commission, apply a state's daily overtime or higher minimum wage, count unpaid minimum wages for the first hours of the week, or count which weeks fall inside the limitation period.
It applies the statute as the 2024 edition of the United States Code prints it and the regulations as the eCFR printed them on October 1, 2026. It read no Department of Labor web page, which this site's research could not open.