Blended Overtime Calculator

When does the weighted-average rule apply?

Any workweek when a non-exempt employee performs two or more types of work for which different nonovertime rates have been established — a warehouse worker who also drives a delivery route, a retail clerk who picks up cashier shifts at a different posted rate, a maintenance tech whose Saturday shift differential creates a different effective rate. The §778.115 weighted-average rule is the default; the only alternative (§7(g)(2) "rate in effect") requires an advance written agreement between employer and employee and a specific set of bona-fide-rate conditions. Most multi-rate weeks fall under the default rule.

Source: 29 CFR §778.115 — Employees working at two or more rates

Are commissions part of the regular rate?

Yes. 29 CFR §778.117 states unambiguously that "Commissions … are payments for hours worked and must be included in the regular rate," regardless of formula, frequency, or method of computation. A commission paid weekly is added to the workweek's other earnings and divided by total hours to get the regular rate (§778.118); a commission paid monthly or quarterly is allocated back to the workweeks it covers and additional OT owed for each (§778.119). The "regardless of frequency" language is the anti-evasion clause — paying commissions monthly does not let an employer skip the workweek-level inclusion.

Source: 29 CFR §778.117 — Commissions in general · 29 CFR §778.118 — Commission paid on a workweek basis

Which bonuses count as "non-discretionary"?

Most of them. 29 CFR §778.211(b) sets a strict discretionary test: the employer must retain discretion over BOTH the fact of payment AND the amount "until a time quite close to the end of the period." Announce a bonus in advance — in a handbook, in a contract, at hiring, by past practice across multiple years — and discretion is abandoned. The Department of Labor's §211(c) examples explicitly include bonuses promised on hiring, bonuses from collective bargaining, attendance bonuses, production bonuses, quality bonuses, and continued-employment bonuses. A "discretionary Christmas bonus" paid every December for four years running is non-discretionary in the §211 sense regardless of how the employer labels it. True discretionary bonuses — both fact and amount decided at sole discretion close to the end of the period — are excluded from the regular rate; everything else gets included.

Source: 29 CFR §778.211 — Discretionary bonuses

What's the §7(g)(2) alternative and when does it apply?

FLSA §7(g)(2) allows an alternative for multi-rate workers: paying OT at "rates not less than one and one-half times such bona fide rates applicable to the same work when performed during nonovertime hours" — the "rate in effect" method. The implementing regulation, 29 CFR §778.419, requires an advance written agreement between employer and employee, bona fide rates (each rate ≥ minimum wage and reflecting actual nonovertime compensation for that type of work), and the OT hours paid at §7(g)(2) rates equaling or exceeding the hours over the maximum-hours standard. Without the advance written agreement, §778.115's weighted-average method is mandatory. The calculator implements the default §778.115 rule because the agreement-vs-no-agreement state is something a calculator can't observe — surfacing both as selectable modes would invite mis-selection in the larger default-rule audience.

Source: 29 U.S.C. §207(g)(2) — Alternative overtime computation for multi-rate work · 29 CFR §778.419 — §7(g)(2) implementation

Does the calculator handle state-stacked overtime (California daily + 7th-day + double-time)?

Partially. The California Alvarado flat-sum bonus override IS handled — select "California (Alvarado override)" in the Jurisdiction toggle and the bonus-portion regular rate switches to the non-OT-hours divisor with the 1.5× multiplier per Alvarado v. Dart Container Corp., 4 Cal. 5th 542 (2018). What's NOT handled here: state-stacked daily OT, double-time, or 7th-consecutive-day premiums on the BASE wages — California Labor Code §510 stacks daily OT (over 8h/day), double-time (over 12h/day or 7th-day after 8h), and weekly OT under a "greater of daily or weekly" rule. Kentucky has a 7th-day premium. Alaska, Nevada, and Colorado have daily-OT thresholds. For state-stacked architecture on the base, use the state overtime calculator at /tools/state-overtime-calculator alongside this calculator's Alvarado output.

Source: Alvarado v. Dart Container Corp. of California, 4 Cal. 5th 542 (2018)

Does the calculator handle the holiday-bonus / single-rate case?

Yes, indirectly — set up the calculator with a single rate row and the holiday bonus as the supplement, and the math reproduces the canonical holiday-bonus §778.211 case. If that's the only case you need, the holiday pay & bonus overtime calculator at /tools/holiday-pay-calculator is set up for it specifically (with a Simple Holiday Pay mode for the rate × multiplier × hours case). The two calculators share the same underlying §778.211 / §778.209 math; they differ in input shape — blended is for multi-rate workweeks, holiday is for single-rate workweeks with a holiday bonus.

What about piece-rate or fluctuating-workweek arrangements?

29 CFR §778.111 covers piece-rate workers (total piece-rate earnings ÷ total hours = regular rate); 29 CFR §778.114 covers the fluctuating-workweek arrangement (the half-rate premium is the only OT premium owed because the salary is divided by ALL hours worked, including over-40 hours, which already covers the straight-time portion of OT hours at the base rate). Both have their own arithmetic that doesn't fit the row-of-{rate, hours} input model this calculator uses. Out of scope; document in methodology.

Source: 29 CFR §778.111 — Pieceworker · 29 CFR §778.114 — Fluctuating workweek method

Does the calculator save my entries?

No. Nothing typed here is sent or saved anywhere. Closing the tab clears the data. The math runs entirely on your device.