Short answer: overtime shows up in the earnings section of a pay stub. Most stubs give it its own line, labeled something like OT, Overtime or OT 1.5, with the overtime hours, the overtime rate and the amount, beside a separate line for regular hours. Some payroll systems show it differently: every hour at the straight rate, then a separate "OT premium" line paying the extra half. Under federal law, overtime is counted per workweek, not per pay period. It is paid at least one and a half times the regular rate, and the regular rate can be higher than your base hourly pay.
This is educational information, not legal or financial advice. It explains how overtime is presented and calculated. It cannot tell you whether you are entitled to overtime or whether your own pay is correct.
Where this applies: the United States. The federal rule described here comes from the Fair Labor Standards Act. States can add their own overtime rules on top, and some do, so the federal rule is the minimum rather than the whole picture.
The federal rule behind the line
The U.S. Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #23 on overtime pay (revised October 2019, read 2026-09-11) sets out the core of it. Covered, non-exempt employees must receive overtime pay "for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay."
Three words in that sentence decide what your stub should show: workweek, regular rate and non-exempt. Each is covered below, because each is a place where a stub can look wrong while being right, or look right while being wrong.
How overtime is shown on a pay stub: the two common layouts
Payroll systems present the same arithmetic in two main ways. Knowing both stops a correct stub from looking like an error.
Layout one: a separate overtime line. Regular hours appear on one line at your base rate. Overtime hours appear on a second line at the overtime rate. For example:
| Earnings | Hours | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | 80.00 | 20.00 | 1,600.00 |
| Overtime | 6.00 | 30.00 | 180.00 |
An illustration with round numbers, not a real stub. It assumes a two week pay period, a $20 base rate with nothing else added to the regular rate, and six overtime hours all falling in one workweek.
Layout two: straight time plus a premium. Every hour worked, including the overtime hours, is paid at the straight rate on one line. A second line pays only the extra half for the overtime hours. Using the same numbers, the stub would show 86 hours at $20 and then 6 hours of "OT premium" at $10. The total is identical. People reading this layout for the first time often think their overtime was paid at a lower rate, when it was split across two lines.
Both layouts usually carry a year to date column, so you can track total overtime across the year as well as this period.
Why the workweek, not the pay period, decides overtime
This is the part of the stub that confuses people most, because the stub is organized by pay period and the rule is not.
Fact Sheet #23 defines a workweek as "a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, seven consecutive 24-hour periods." It does not have to match the calendar week and can start on any day and at any hour. And the same fact sheet is explicit: "Averaging of hours over two or more weeks is not permitted."
Most people are paid biweekly or semimonthly, so one stub often covers two workweeks or parts of them. That produces results that look odd until you see the workweeks separately:
- Worked 50 hours one week and 30 the next. The stub covers 80 hours in total, which looks like no overtime at all. Under the federal rule, the first week still contains 10 overtime hours, because each workweek is counted on its own.
- A semimonthly stub. A period running from the 1st to the 15th rarely lines up with workweeks. Overtime from a workweek that straddles two periods may be calculated when the workweek closes, and paid on the stub that covers that day.
If your hours arrive on a different pay schedule from your workweeks, our guide to weekly, biweekly and semimonthly pay explains how the calendar and the pay period drift apart.
A practical way to check: split the hours on your stub into the workweeks your employer uses, and look at each week separately.
Why the overtime rate may not be exactly 1.5 times your base rate
The law says time and one half the regular rate, and the regular rate is not always your base hourly pay.
Fact Sheet #23 states the regular rate includes "all remuneration for employment except certain payments excluded by the Act itself." It lists the exclusions: expense reimbursements, overtime premiums themselves, true premiums for weekend or holiday work, discretionary bonuses, gifts on special occasions, and pay for time not worked such as vacation, holidays or illness.
What that means on a stub:
- A shift differential or a nondiscretionary bonus (one promised in advance for meeting a target, say) can raise the regular rate. If you earned one in a week with overtime, the overtime rate may be slightly higher than 1.5 times your base pay. Some payroll systems show this as a separate adjustment line, sometimes on a later stub once the bonus is calculated.
- Paid holidays and paid leave are excluded from the regular rate, and under the federal rule the hours are not hours worked either. A week with eight hours of holiday pay and 36 hours worked contains 44 paid hours but no federal overtime. State rules or an employer's own policy can be more generous.
- Reimbursements for mileage or travel do not count toward the regular rate.
So a stub showing an overtime rate a few cents above one and a half times your base pay is not necessarily an error. It may be doing exactly what the rule requires.
Who is owed overtime, and why "salaried" does not settle it
The overtime rule covers non-exempt employees. Being hourly usually means non-exempt. Being salaried does not automatically mean exempt.
The Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #17A (revised September 2019, read 2026-09-11) describes the main exemptions for executive, administrative, professional, computer and outside sales employees. They generally depend on a salary test and a duties test together, not on a job title. A salaried employee who does not meet those tests can still be owed overtime, and their stub may show overtime just like an hourly stub does.
How overtime affects taxes on the stub
Overtime is earnings, so it adds to gross pay and flows through the same withholding calculation as the rest of your pay.
One effect catches people off guard. Payroll generally works out withholding for a period as though that period's pay continued all year. A period with heavy overtime can therefore be withheld against at a higher rate than a normal one. That is the withholding estimate reacting to a large period, not a separate tax on overtime. Whether any part of overtime pay receives special treatment on your federal tax return is a tax question with its own rules for each year. The IRS publishes the current version, and a tax professional can apply it to your situation.
A four step overtime check
- Count your hours by workweek. Split the stub's hours into the workweeks your employer uses and note any week over 40.
- Match the overtime hours. The overtime hours on the stub should cover the hours over 40 in each workweek that closed within the period, plus any your state or employer adds.
- Check the rate. At minimum, one and a half times the regular rate. If you earned a shift differential or a nondiscretionary bonus that week, the rate may be a little higher.
- Confirm the layout. If you see an "OT premium" line at half your rate, check that the overtime hours are also inside the straight time line.
If the numbers still do not match, payroll or HR can show you how the workweeks and rates were applied. Unresolved federal overtime questions go to the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, and state rules go to your state labor office (read 2026-09-11).
Overtime and your budget
Overtime is real money, but it is rarely steady money. Some months carry a lot of it and some none. A budget built on a heavy overtime month assumes that month will repeat.
A common approach is to budget from pay without overtime and treat overtime as a variable addition, the same logic our guide to budgeting with irregular income applies to any pay that moves. And when a large overtime check and a small one sit side by side, it is the same arithmetic as averaging variable expenses, run on the income side.
What a stub cannot tell you
A stub shows how payroll calculated overtime from the hours it received. It does not show whether all your hours were recorded, whether your job is correctly classified as exempt or non-exempt, or whether a state rule applies on top of the federal one. Those questions sit with your employer, your state labor office and, for the federal rule, the Department of Labor.
FAQ
Where does overtime appear on a pay stub? In the earnings section, usually as its own line showing overtime hours, the overtime rate and the amount, with this period and year to date columns. Some systems instead show all hours at straight time plus a separate overtime premium line.
Why does my stub show 80 hours and no overtime when I worked 50 hours one week? Under the federal rule, overtime is counted per workweek and hours cannot be averaged across two weeks. A week with 50 hours contains overtime even if the two week total is 80. If the stub shows none, it is worth asking payroll how the workweeks were applied.
Why is my overtime rate higher than one and a half times my hourly rate? Overtime is based on the regular rate, which can include shift differentials and nondiscretionary bonuses. When those apply, the overtime rate can come out slightly above one and a half times base pay.
Does holiday or vacation pay count toward overtime? Under the federal rule, pay for time not worked, such as holidays, vacation and sick time, is excluded from the regular rate and those hours are not hours worked. State law or employer policy can be more generous.
Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet #23, "Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA" (revised October 2019), read 2026-09-11. U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #17A, "Exemption for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer & Outside Sales Employees Under the FLSA" (revised September 2019), read 2026-09-11. U.S. Department of Labor, "State Labor Offices" directory, read 2026-09-11. The table uses round illustrative numbers with the assumptions stated beneath it, and is not a real employee's pay.