Overtime laws by state
The federal rule is one line long. What varies is which states add a daily threshold on top of it — and who is exempt in the first place.
The federal rule is one line long. What varies is which states add a daily threshold on top of it — and who is exempt in the first place.
This is general information, not legal advice. Wage and hour rules change, and how they apply depends on your industry, your classification and sometimes your city. Confirm anything you plan to act on with your state labour agency, the US Department of Labor, or an employment lawyer.
The Fair Labor Standards Act is the baseline everywhere in the United States. It requires covered, non-exempt employees to be paid at least one and a half times their regular rate of pay for every hour worked beyond 40 in a workweek.
Three things about that sentence do more work than people expect:
There is also no federal requirement for premium pay simply because work fell on a weekend, a night or a public holiday. Those premiums are common, but they come from contracts, not the FLSA.
Most states either mirror the federal 40-hour rule or have no separate overtime statute at all, in which case the FLSA governs. The states below add something. Where a state and federal rule both apply, the employee gets whichever is more generous.
| State | Daily rule | Weekly rule | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | 1.5× after 8 h/day | 1.5× after 40 h/week | Daily overtime applies to employers with 4 or more employees. |
| California | 1.5× after 8 h/day; 2× after 12 h/day | 1.5× after 40 h/week | Also 1.5× for the first 8 hours of a 7th consecutive workday, and 2× beyond that. |
| Colorado | 1.5× after 12 h/day or 12 consecutive hours | 1.5× after 40 h/week | Set by the COMPS Order rather than a statute. |
| Nevada | 1.5× after 8 h/day for lower-paid employees | 1.5× after 40 h/week | Daily rule applies when the employee earns less than 1.5× the state minimum wage. |
| Kansas | — | 1.5× after 46 h/week | State threshold applies only to employers not covered by the FLSA. |
| Minnesota | — | 1.5× after 48 h/week | State threshold applies only to employers not covered by the FLSA. |
| Puerto Rico | 1.5× after 8 h/day | 1.5× after 40 h/week | Higher premiums apply for statutory rest days in some cases. |
The Kansas and Minnesota entries are the ones most often misreported. Those higher thresholds do not mean employees there wait until 46 or 48 hours for a premium — the vast majority of employers in both states are covered by the FLSA, so the 40-hour federal rule applies. The state figure only bites for the small set of employers outside federal coverage.
California has the most layered set of rules in the country, and it is the one worth understanding even if you work elsewhere, because it is the model other proposals copy.
| Situation | Rate |
|---|---|
| Hours 1–8 in a day | Regular |
| Hours 9–12 in a day | 1.5× |
| Beyond 12 hours in a day | 2× |
| Beyond 40 hours in a week | 1.5× |
| First 8 hours on the 7th consecutive workday | 1.5× |
| Beyond 8 hours on the 7th consecutive workday | 2× |
The rules stack but never double-count: an hour already paid as daily overtime is not counted again toward the weekly threshold. The TimeWorked timesheet applies daily overtime first and then tests the remaining regular hours against the weekly threshold, which is the same ordering.
None of this applies to an exempt employee. To be exempt from overtime under the standard federal white-collar exemptions, an employee generally has to satisfy all three of:
Several states set a higher salary floor than the federal one — California, New York, Washington, Colorado and Alaska among them — and California's test also requires that the employee spend more than half their time on exempt duties. Where the state figure is higher, it controls.
Federally, after 40 hours in a workweek — there is no daily rule. Alaska, California, Colorado, Nevada and Puerto Rico add a daily threshold; everywhere else the weekly rule stands alone.
No. Overtime is calculated within each fixed workweek separately, even when the pay period covers two weeks. A 50-hour week followed by a 30-hour week produces 10 overtime hours.
Many do. Being salaried is only one of three conditions for exemption — the employee must also be paid at least $684 a week under current federal regulations and perform duties that genuinely fit an exemption category.
Not federally. California requires it beyond 12 hours in a day and beyond 8 hours on a seventh consecutive workday. Elsewhere it comes from a contract or collective agreement rather than statute.
Generally yes. If the employer knew or had reason to know the work was performed, it must be paid. An employer can discipline an employee for breaching an approval rule, but cannot withhold the wages.
Not under federal law. Premium pay for weekends, nights and public holidays is a matter of contract or company policy unless a state rule or collective agreement says otherwise.
$684 a week, or $35,568 a year, under the federal regulations in force. The 2024 rule that would have raised it was vacated in November 2024 and the Department of Labor republished the 2019 levels. Several states set higher figures.
Split hours into regular, overtime and double time.
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When rounding punches is lawful and when it is not.
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A full week with breaks, overtime, saving and export.