You picked up a couple of extra shifts during the holiday rush, your total lands at 46 hours for the week, and now you’re staring at the paystub in MyTime wondering whether the math is right. Target overtime isn’t complicated on paper. Federal law applies, the state you live in may add its own rules, and your employee status (hourly team member, salaried team leader, executive) decides which bucket you fall into. What actually trips people up is knowing which bucket that is, and catching when something got logged wrong.
This guide walks through the most common Target scenarios so you can find yours fast.
Start here: which situation are you in?
Are you an hourly team member? → Go to Section 1 (standard federal and state rules apply).
Are you a salaried Team Leader, ETL, or Store Director? → Go to Section 2 (your exemption status determines eligibility).
Do you work in California, Alaska, Nevada, or Colorado? → Read Section 1 plus Section 3 (daily overtime changes the math).
Do you think you were underpaid? → Jump to Section 4 (the dispute path).
Section 1: Hourly team members
This covers most people working the floor, Starbucks, Drive-Up, beauty, and logistics. Target follows the Fair Labor Standards Act, which means any hours over 40 in a workweek are paid at 1.5x your regular rate. Target’s workweek is a fixed seven-day period; your MyTime schedule reflects it.
The regular rate includes your base hourly pay plus any non-discretionary bonuses or shift differentials earned that week. Logistics team members pulling a 4 a.m. unload differential, for example, have that differential blended into their overtime calculation. Holiday pay premiums, when Target offers them seasonally, do count toward the week’s total hours for overtime purposes if the hours were actually worked (premium hours paid for a closed holiday generally don’t count).
Scenario: You work 43 hours in a week at $17.25/hour. Your paycheck should show 40 regular hours at $17.25 ($690) and 3 overtime hours at $25.88 ($77.63), for a gross of $767.63. If it shows 43 straight hours at $17.25 ($741.75), that’s $25.88 short.
Related reading: Target PTO policies and paid leave explains how vacation and sick hours interact with the 40-hour overtime threshold (short version: PTO hours don’t count toward the 40 since you didn’t work them).
Section 2: Salaried Team Leaders and above
Target classifies salaried leadership roles under FLSA exemption categories. Executive and administrative exemptions mean no overtime regardless of how many hours you work, as long as:
- Your salary meets or exceeds the federal threshold (currently $35,568/year, though pending DOL rules may raise it)
- Your primary duties match the exemption test (managing people, exercising independent judgment, etc.)
- You’re paid on a true salary basis, not hourly
If you’re a Team Leader or Executive Team Lead clearing the threshold and spending most of your time on leadership duties, you’re exempt and don’t earn overtime. The trade-off is that your salary isn’t docked for shorter weeks either.
If you’re a salaried leader who spends the majority of your time doing the same work as your hourly team (running register, stocking, covering break outs), your exemption is shakier. The “primary duty” test is not just about your job title. Lawsuits against major retailers have repeatedly centered on assistant-manager-level roles that were exempt on paper but non-exempt in practice. If this describes you, ask HR for your written classification and a copy of your exemption test.
Section 3: California and other daily-overtime states
Federal law only cares about weekly hours. Several states layer daily rules on top:
- California: 1.5x after 8 hours in a day, 2x after 12 hours in a day, 1.5x for the first 8 hours on the 7th consecutive workday, 2x for anything past that 8 on day 7.
- Alaska: 1.5x after 8 hours in a day for most employees.
- Colorado: 1.5x after 12 hours in a day, or after 12 consecutive hours regardless of meal breaks.
- Nevada: 1.5x after 8 hours in a 24-hour period if you earn less than 1.5x the state minimum wage.
California scenario: You work four 10-hour shifts in a row (40 total hours for the week). Federal law alone says no overtime. California says you earned 8 hours of overtime, because each day past 8 hours triggers 1.5x. Target must pay the California rate in California stores.
Your paystub should break out regular hours, daily OT, weekly OT, and double time as separate lines when any apply. If your California timecard only shows weekly overtime, that’s a red flag.
Section 4: Your paystub doesn’t match what you worked
This is the part where most real problems get resolved or stuck. Work through it in order:
- Open MyTime and pull the full week’s timecard. Note every punch, every break, every auto-deduction. Screenshot it.
- Open your paystub in Workday or Paperless Employee. Compare the hours listed against the timecard.
- Flag anything missing: an unpaid break you worked through, a shift that didn’t close properly, a shift differential not applied.
- Talk to your Team Lead or HR business partner the same day if possible. Most corrections are timecard edits that need to happen before the pay period closes.
- If it’s not corrected in the next paycheck, escalate to your Store Director or call the Target Ethics Line at 1-800-541-6838.
- Still not resolved? File a wage claim with the US Department of Labor or your state labor commissioner. You have two years from the violation (three if willful) to recover back wages.
Never edit your own timecard. Have a lead make the correction in the system and add a note. Self-edits can end badly even when the edit itself is accurate.
The part about “unauthorized” overtime
Target, like most retailers, has a policy that overtime should be approved by a lead before you work it. Here’s the thing the policy rarely spells out clearly: if you worked the hours, you get paid for the hours, approved or not. The company can discipline you for going over without approval. They cannot refuse to pay. Any manager who says “we can’t pay that because it wasn’t approved” is wrong on federal law.
Frequently asked
Does Target pay double time? Only in states that require it (primarily California, after 12 hours in a day or after 8 hours on day 7 of a work streak). There’s no company-wide double-time policy.
Are seasonal team members eligible for overtime? Yes. Seasonal status does not change FLSA eligibility. If you’re hourly and non-exempt, the 40-hour rule applies whether you’ve been there six weeks or six years.
What about the RedCard or Starbucks shifts inside the store? If you’re clocked in under Target, all hours count toward your Target overtime threshold. Starbucks shifts inside Target stores are Target hours, not Starbucks corporate hours.
Does the 10% merchandise discount affect my overtime calculation? No. The discount isn’t paid wages, so it isn’t part of the regular rate.
For a deeper look at how federal overtime law structures all of this, see our federal overtime pay rules guide. If you recently separated from Target and have last-paycheck overtime questions, the Target final paycheck laws by state guide walks through the timing rules. And for scheduling and login help, the Target login portals overview breaks down MyTime vs Workday vs Paperless Employee.
The main Target employee resource hub has the rest of the guides if you need benefits, PTO, or W-2 info.