How the card turns hours into pay
Start with the rate. With one job, put your hourly rate in Rate A and fill in your clock in and out times; each day shows its hours and its gross pay, and the line under the week shows the week's total. With two jobs at two rates, put the second in Rate B. Every clock in and out then gets an A or B beside it, so a day spent on the register in the morning and in the kitchen in the evening is two pairs, one of each.
The card prices a week in two steps, the same two steps the Department of Labor sets out. First, every hour you worked is paid at its own rate, overtime hours included. That is the straight-time pay. Second, each overtime hour earns an extra half of the week's regular rate on top, because the hour itself was already paid once in step one. The regulation's own example is a $12 rate and a 46 hour week: 46 hours at $12 plus 6 hours at $6, which is $588 (29 CFR 778.110).
With one rate and no differential, the regular rate is just your rate and none of this matters. It starts to matter the moment a week has two rates in it.
Two jobs at two rates in one week
When you do two kinds of work for the same employer in the same week at two different rates, the regular rate for that week is neither of them. The regulation says it is "the weighted average of such rates": your total straight-time pay from all the work, divided by the total hours worked at all of it (29 CFR 778.115). People call it the blended rate. It is worked out fresh each week, from that week's hours, and a week with more hours at the higher rate has a higher blended rate.
A worked example
A cashier at $15 an hour also covers the grill at $21. One week she works 8 hours on the grill on Sunday and 7 on Monday, then 6 hours a day on the register from Tuesday to Saturday. That is 15 hours at $21 and 30 hours at $15, 45 hours in all, so 5 hours of overtime.
| Step | Working | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Straight-time pay | 30 × $15.00 + 15 × $21.00 | $765.00 |
| Regular rate | $765.00 ÷ 45 hours | $17.00 |
| Overtime premium | 5 × ½ × $17.00 | $42.50 |
| Gross pay | $765.00 + $42.50 | $807.50 |
Each overtime hour comes to $25.50 in all, one and a half times $17.00. Type the week into the card with those rates and the week line reads blended rate $17.00 and the total reads $807.50. The Saturday shows $132.50: six hours at $15, plus the premium on the five overtime hours, which fell on that day.
Why overtime is not 1.5 times the higher rate
The easy guesses are 1.5 times $21, which is $31.50 an hour, or 1.5 times $15, which is $22.50. The law asks for neither. It asks for 1.5 times the blended rate, $25.50, because the overtime is owed on the whole week's work, not on whichever job happened to come last.
With just the two rates, paying overtime at 1.5 times the higher one is always at least what the law requires, so an employer who does it has done nothing wrong; it has paid more than it had to. Paying overtime at 1.5 times the rate of whichever job the overtime hours were spent on is different. That method is lawful only when you and your employer agreed to it before the work was done, the rate is the one actually paid for that work in ordinary hours, and the overtime paid at it covers every hour over the limit (29 CFR 778.419). Without the agreement, the blended rate applies.
The method can cut either way. In the example the five overtime hours were on the register, so at the rate in effect the week comes to $802.50, five dollars less than the blended $807.50. Turn the week round — the register Sunday to Thursday, then the grill on Friday and Saturday — and the overtime falls on the grill: the rate-in-effect week is $817.50, ten dollars more, while the blended week is still $807.50. Whenever a week worked at both rates has overtime, the card shows the rate-in-effect figure under the total, so a pay stub that was worked out that way can be recognised.
Shift differentials go into the regular rate
A night or weekend premium is not overtime pay, and it cannot be left out of the overtime arithmetic. The regulation names it: "nightshift differentials (whether they take the form of a percent of the base rate or an addition of so many cents per hour)" must be included in the regular rate (29 CFR 778.207(b)). So the differential pushes the blended rate up, and with it the overtime.
Put the differential in, in dollars an hour or as a percentage of the rate, and the hours it is paid for. The card pays it only on the minutes inside that window, so a shift from 3pm to 1am with a $2 differential from 11pm to 7am gets it for two hours, not ten. Pick the same hour for both ends if it is paid on every hour.
An example. Five shifts of 3pm to 1am at $20, with $2 an hour from 11pm: 50 hours, ten of them with the differential. Straight time is 50 × $20 plus 10 × $2, which is $1,020.00. The regular rate is $1,020.00 ÷ 50 = $20.40, and the ten overtime hours earn ½ × $20.40 each, $102.00. Gross: $1,122.00. Paying the overtime on the $20 base rate instead gives $1,120.00. Two dollars is small, but it is short every week.
Overtime and double time multipliers
Federal law sets the floor at one and a half times the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. It has no double time at all. Double time comes from state law — in California, hours over 12 in a day and over 8 on the seventh day in a row — or from a contract. Both multipliers are boxes on the card because union agreements and handbooks often pay more, such as double time on Sundays or holidays. Any multiplier works the same way as 1.5: the straight-time hour is already paid, and the premium is the rest of the multiplier times the regular rate. The card warns you if overtime is set below 1.5.
Gross pay day by day
A day's gross pay is its hours at their own rates, plus the premium on any overtime hours that fell on that day. Under the over-40 rule the overtime is the hours after the fortieth, so it lands on the day the fortieth hour was passed and the days after it. Under a daily rule it lands on the long days.
Because the regular rate belongs to the whole week, a day's pay is not final until the week is. Add a Saturday at the higher rate and the blended rate rises, and the premium on Thursday's overtime rises with it. The card works this out again on every change. Money is rounded to the cent only when it is shown; the sums use the exact figures, so a day added up by hand from rounded amounts can be a cent away from the total.
On a biweekly card each week is priced on its own, with its own blended rate, because each workweek stands alone (29 CFR 778.104). The two week lines show both.
Questions people ask
I have two jobs with two different employers. Is that one week of overtime?
Usually not. The weighted average is for two kinds of work for the same employer. Hours for two separate, unrelated employers are counted separately, and each owes overtime only on its own hours. Use the card once for each job, with one rate.
Is the blended rate the average of my two rates?
Only if you worked the same hours at each. It is weighted by hours: 30 hours at $15 and 15 at $21 is $17.00, not the $18.00 halfway between them.
Can I take comp time instead of overtime pay?
Only if you work for a state or local government agency. The FLSA lets public agencies give time off instead of overtime pay, at one and a half hours for each overtime hour, up to 240 hours banked (480 for police, fire, emergency and seasonal work), under a union agreement or one made with you before the work (29 U.S.C. 207(o)). A private employer has to pay overtime in money. This card does not keep a comp time balance; it prices the overtime as pay.
I got a production bonus that week. Does it change the overtime?
Yes. A bonus you were promised for output or attendance goes into the regular rate too. The regulation's example: 46 hours at $12 with a $46 bonus is a regular rate of $13, not $12 (29 CFR 778.110(b)). The card has no bonus box, so a week with a bonus will come out a little low.
Does this work for California?
Pick California 8 / 12 under overtime and the card applies the week's blended rate to the daily overtime and the double time. The state labor department's manual describes the same weighted average, but in 2021 a California appeal court held it is not the only lawful method there, so check what your employer uses.
Is my time card sent anywhere?
No. Everything is worked out inside your browser, and what you type is kept in this browser only, so the card and your rates are still here if you come back. Clear removes the times and keeps the rates. Nothing reaches a server.