If you work more than 40 hours in a week and you’re paid hourly, federal law almost certainly owes you extra money. The rule is short: anything past 40 hours in a single workweek gets paid at one and a half times your normal rate. That’s the whole headline. The confusion starts with everything around it, and that’s usually where workers get shorted.
This guide walks through who qualifies, the salary number that matters in 2026, the three tests that actually decide your status, and the steps to take if a paycheck comes up short.
The basic rule: 1.5x after 40 hours
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is the federal law behind overtime. Under it, non-exempt employees earn time and a half for every hour worked beyond 40 in a workweek. A workweek is any fixed, repeating block of seven days your employer sets. It does not have to be Monday through Sunday, but once it’s set, your employer can’t move it around to dodge overtime.
Two things trip people up here. First, overtime is weekly, not daily, under federal law. Working a 12-hour day doesn’t trigger federal overtime on its own as long as your weekly total stays at or under 40. Second, you can’t average two weeks together. Sixty hours one week and twenty the next is still twenty overtime hours owed, not a tidy average of forty.
A handful of states go further than the federal floor. California, Colorado, Nevada and a few others have daily overtime, where hours past 8 in a day count. If your state offers more, your state rule wins. Your company’s overtime rules page and the Kroger overtime breakdown cover how this plays out at specific employers.
Exempt vs non-exempt: the part employers get wrong
Here’s the misconception that costs workers the most: a salary does not make you exempt from overtime. Neither does a job title. Plenty of “assistant managers” and “shift leads” are owed overtime they never see, because being put on salary and handed a manager label doesn’t satisfy the law on its own.
To be legally exempt, an employee has to clear all three of these tests. Miss one, and you’re non-exempt and owed overtime:
- Salary basis. You’re paid a fixed amount each week that doesn’t shrink based on hours or quality of work.
- Salary level. You earn at least the federal threshold (covered below).
- Duties. Your actual day-to-day work is genuinely executive, administrative, or professional, not stocking shelves or running a register with a fancier name.
That third test is where most misclassification lives. If you spend your shift doing the same hourly work as the people you “supervise,” the duties test probably isn’t met, no matter what your offer letter says.
The 2026 salary threshold: $684 a week
For 2026, the federal salary level for exemption is $684 per week, which works out to $35,568 a year. If you’re salaried below that number, you’re entitled to overtime regardless of your title or duties. Full stop.
This number has a messy recent history worth knowing. The Department of Labor tried to raise it in 2024, first to about $44,000 and then toward roughly $59,000 for 2025. A federal court struck that rule down in late 2024, so the threshold snapped back to the older $35,568 figure, and that’s still where it sits in 2026. The DOL has signaled it may revisit the number, so it’s worth a periodic check.
Several states set their own, higher salary lines. New York, California, Washington, Colorado and Maine all sit well above the federal figure in 2026, with California’s threshold past $1,300 a week. If you work in one of those states, the state number is what protects you.
“No tax on overtime”: what changed
Starting with the 2025 tax year, a federal deduction lets many workers deduct a portion of their overtime pay at tax time. It does not change whether you’re owed overtime or how your employer calculates it. It only affects what you may deduct when you file, and it phases out at higher incomes (roughly $150,000 for single filers and $300,000 for joint filers). The details are still settling, so confirm the current rules with the IRS or a tax preparer before counting on a specific number.
How overtime is actually calculated
Your overtime rate is based on your “regular rate,” which is more than just your base hourly wage. Nondiscretionary bonuses, shift differentials and commissions usually get folded in. A quick example:
- Base rate: $16.00/hour
- You work 46 hours in the week
- Overtime rate: $16.00 × 1.5 = $24.00/hour
- Pay: (40 × $16.00) + (6 × $24.00) = $640 + $144 = $784
If you earned a $50 production bonus that week, that bonus gets spread across your hours to bump the regular rate slightly, which nudges the overtime rate up too. Employers skip this step constantly, and it’s a common source of underpayment.
What to do if your overtime is missing
Do this:
- Keep your own hours. A phone note or a simple log beats relying on a system you can’t see.
- Compare your pay stub to your hours every period. Catching it early is far easier than reconstructing months later.
- Ask payroll in writing first. Many shortfalls are genuine errors, and a written request creates a paper trail. Your HR contact guide lists the right number to call.
- File a Wage and Hour Division complaint with the DOL if it isn’t fixed. It’s free, and back-pay claims generally reach back two years (three if the violation was willful).
Don’t do this:
- Don’t sign a timesheet you know is wrong because a manager pressured you.
- Don’t accept “we don’t pay overtime, it’s company policy” as a real answer. A company policy can’t override federal law.
- Don’t let it slide for a year assuming it’ll sort itself out. Claims have deadlines.
If overtime trouble showed up around a job ending, the final paycheck laws guide and our PTO payout explainer cover what else you’re owed on the way out.
A quick reality check
I’m laying out the federal floor here, not legal advice for your exact situation. Overtime cases turn on specifics like your real duties, your state, and how your pay is structured, and those details matter. If real money is on the line, a quick consult with a state labor office or an employment attorney is worth it. The short version still holds though: hourly past 40 means time and a half, and a salary alone doesn’t change that.