How to Total a Weekly Time Card

Adding up a week’s worth of clock-in and clock-out entries seems simple until you get to the part where some of those hours count differently than others. A time card isn’t just a sum, it’s a sum that then gets split into regular hours and overtime hours before pay is calculated. Here’s how that process actually works.

The core idea

A weekly time card starts with seven numbers: how many hours you worked each day, Monday through Sunday. Days off are just zero. Once you have that list, the first step is trivial, add them together to get total hours for the week.

The part that trips people up is what happens next. Under the federal baseline (the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA), the first 40 hours in a workweek are regular hours, and anything beyond that is overtime, paid at 1.5 times your regular hourly rate. This is a weekly threshold, not a daily one: working 10 hours on Tuesday doesn’t trigger overtime by itself, only the weekly total crossing 40 does. Some states apply daily overtime rules on top of this, but the standard weekly-over-40 rule is what most hourly workers in the US fall under.

So a time card total isn’t one number, it’s four: total hours, regular hours, overtime hours, and the pay that comes from combining them with your hourly rate.

The formula

Total Hours     = sum of hours worked Monday through Sunday
Regular Hours   = min(Total Hours, 40)
Overtime Hours  = max(Total Hours - 40, 0)
Total Pay       = (Regular Hours x Hourly Rate) + (Overtime Hours x Hourly Rate x 1.5)

Notice that regular hours can never exceed 40, no matter how many hours you actually worked. Everything past that line moves into the overtime bucket and gets the 1.5x multiplier instead of your straight rate.

Worked example: a standard 40-hour week

Say you worked exactly 8 hours a day, Monday through Friday, with weekends off, at $25 an hour.

• Total hours: 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 + 0 + 0 = 40 hrs
• Regular hours: min(40, 40) = 40 hrs
• Overtime hours: max(40 - 40, 0) = 0 hrs
• Total pay: 40 x $25 = $1,000.00

No overtime here since the week lands right at the 40-hour line, so the whole total is paid at the regular rate. This is the case most weekly time cards land on when a schedule is steady.

Worked example: a week with overtime

Now say you worked 9 hours a day Monday through Friday, plus 4 hours on Saturday, with Sunday off, at $20 an hour.

• Total hours: 9 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 4 + 0 = 49 hrs
• Regular hours: min(49, 40) = 40 hrs
• Overtime hours: max(49 - 40, 0) = 9 hrs
• Regular pay: 40 x $20 = $800.00
• Overtime pay: 9 x $20 x 1.5 = $270.00
• Total pay: $800.00 + $270.00 = $1,070.00

Notice that the extra 9 hours aren’t paid at $20, they’re paid at $30 (the 1.5x rate), which is why the last 9 hours contribute $270 rather than $180. That $90 difference is exactly what the overtime multiplier is for, and it’s the part a manual add-up on a napkin most often gets wrong.

Nuances worth knowing

A few details matter more than they might seem at first glance.

Enter only paid working hours, already excluding unpaid meal or rest breaks. If a 30-minute lunch is unpaid under your policy, don’t count it in that day’s total. If your employer pays for breaks, on the other hand, include them, since they count as hours worked for overtime purposes.

The weekly threshold applies to a single, fixed workweek, not an average across two weeks. An employer can’t average 30 hours one week and 50 hours the next to claim you never crossed 40, each week is evaluated on its own.

This calculator, like the formula above, assumes the federal weekly-over-40 standard. Some states, California being the best-known example, require daily overtime after 8 hours in a single day in addition to the weekly rule, plus double time after 12 hours in a day. If your state has daily rules, a straight weekly total will understate what you’re actually owed; a per-day overtime tool is the better fit for that situation.

Finally, if you work at more than one pay rate during the same week, say a different rate for a different role or shift, the regular rate used for overtime purposes is generally a weighted average of everything you were paid that week, not just your primary rate. That’s a more involved calculation than the single-rate case covered here.

FAQ

What counts as “hours worked” on a time card? Generally, any time you’re required to be on duty, which for most hourly employees means clocked-in time actively working. Unpaid breaks are excluded; paid breaks, required training, and short rest periods are usually included. Check your employer’s specific policy since the details can vary.

Does overtime kick in per day or per week? Under the federal FLSA baseline, it’s per week: only hours beyond 40 in a single workweek count as overtime. Some states add daily overtime rules on top of that (for example, after 8 hours in a day), so check your state’s rules if you’re not sure which applies to you.

Why does my total pay jump so much once I cross 40 hours? Because every hour past 40 is paid at 1.5 times your regular rate, not the same rate as your first 40 hours. A handful of overtime hours can add up faster than it looks like it should, which is exactly why splitting regular and overtime hours out separately, rather than eyeballing a flat total, matters.

Use the Time Card Calculator to run your own numbers.