Methodology and Sources

How OTCalc builds its tables, where every number comes from, and what it does not cover.

Data

State rules are compiled from each state's labor statute and the state labor agency's published overtime guidance; the statute citation and agency link appear on every state page. Federal rules come from the FLSA (29 U.S.C. 207), 29 CFR Part 541 and U.S. Department of Labor fact sheets. The overtime tax deduction follows IRC §225 as added by Public Law 119-21 and the IRS's published guidance and FAQs.

Exempt salary floors are the state figures in effect on October 25, 2026: California (2x state minimum wage), Washington (2.25x), Colorado (COMPS/PAY CALC Order), New York (12 NYCRR 142 by region), Maine (3,000x minimum wage) and Alaska (2x minimum wage), with the federal $684/week elsewhere.

Calculator logic

• Regular rate = (hourly pay × hours + nondiscretionary bonus) ÷ hours worked.
• Weekly overtime uses 40 hours in all states, because FLSA-covered employers must pay at 40 even where state law says 46 (Kansas) or 48 (Minnesota).
• In daily-overtime states, hours already paid as daily overtime are excluded when testing the weekly 40 (no pyramiding). Colorado and Oregon manufacturing pay the greater of the daily or weekly calculation.
• California's seventh-consecutive-day rule applies only when all seven days of the workweek have hours; Kentucky's applies when all seven days are worked.
• Nevada's daily rule is applied only when the hourly rate is under 1.5x the state minimum wage.
• The FLSA-qualified premium is hours over 40 × one-half the regular rate, capped at the total premium paid; everything else is shown as state-only premium.

Not covered

Alternative workweek schedules, collective-bargaining agreements, public-sector comp time, agricultural, domestic, healthcare 8/80, motor-carrier and other occupational exemptions, local ordinances, and fluctuating-workweek salary arrangements. The tool models a standard hourly non-exempt employee in a single workweek.

Updates

Thresholds indexed to state minimum wages are reviewed each January and at mid-year changes (Alaska July 1). Last reviewed October 25, 2026.

Contact

Corrections: editor@otcalc.com