Guides
Reference articles on how work hours turn into pay: overtime rules, the regular rate, rounding, breaks, pay periods and the vocabulary that surrounds them. Written to be checked rather than skimmed, with sources at the bottom of every page.
Reference articles on how work hours turn into pay: overtime rules, the regular rate, rounding, breaks, pay periods and the vocabulary that surrounds them. Written to be checked rather than skimmed, with sources at the bottom of every page.
Federal rules plus the states that add daily or lower thresholds.
Why overtime is rarely just 1.5× your hourly wage.
How the qualified overtime deduction actually works.
When rounding punches is lawful and when it is not.
Which breaks are paid, and which states require them.
A correct sheet, step by step, with the common mistakes.
Weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly and the 27-paycheck year.
Where 2,080 comes from, and the months that break it.
Sixty terms you will meet on a pay stub or timesheet.
Every guide pairs with a tool that does the arithmetic for you.
A full week with breaks, overtime, saving and export.
One day, clocked in and out up to three times.
Duration between two clock times, including overnight.
Split hours into regular, overtime and double time.
Convert an hourly rate to annual pay and back.
Turn an accrual rate into days and a year-end balance.
No. These guides are general information written to help you understand how hours and pay are calculated. Wage and hour rules vary by state, industry and classification, and they change. Check with your state labour agency or an employment lawyer before acting on anything that matters.
Each guide carries a last-reviewed date and links to the primary sources it draws on — mostly US Department of Labor and IRS material. Where an area is unsettled, such as timesheet rounding in California, the guide says so rather than picking an answer.
The legal material is US-focused, because that is where the rules are most often searched for and most often misunderstood. The arithmetic guides — decimal hours, work hours in a year, pay period maths — apply anywhere.