Skip to content
Salary & HRpayrollUnited States only

Holiday & Double-Time Pay Calculator

Pay for a holiday or weekend shift at whatever premium your employer offers. Federal law requires no premium at all for holidays, so the multiplier here is a term of your contract rather than a statutory figure.

Also called: holiday pay calculator, double time calculator.

$
hours
Total pay for the week
$950.00

$950.00 for 45 hours. The regular rate is $20.00, not the 20 on your contract, so the 5 overtime hours carry a premium of $50.00.

Hours at the regular rate
40
Overtime hours
5
Regular rate for overtime purposes
$20.00
Straight-time pay
$900.00
Overtime premium
$50.00

Computed from the published rates for the tax year you selected, which is not necessarily the current year. A calculation, not tax advice, and it does not know anything about your circumstances beyond the figures entered.

Method and background

This is what the calculation gives for the numbers you entered. It is an estimate, not advice, and it knows nothing about your situation beyond those numbers. Rules for United States change on a published schedule; the effective date is shown on every rule-based tool.

How this is calculated

There is no federal entitlement to extra pay for working a holiday: time and a half or double time on a public holiday is a matter of contract or policy. Set the multiplier your employer actually offers. The hours-based arithmetic is identical to overtime, which is why they share an engine.

regular rate = all straight-time earnings / all hours worked; premium = (multiplier - 1) * regular rate * overtime hours
R
The regular rate (currency)
m
The overtime multiplier (decimal)
H_ot
Hours over the threshold (hours)

Worked examples

Each of these is asserted on every build. If a change to the engine ever moved one of these answers, the build would fail before the page could print it.

eight hours at double time

Hourly rate
30
Hours worked this week
8
Non-discretionary bonus this week
$0.00
Overtime starts after
0 hours
Overtime multiplier
2

Total pay for the week$480.00

8 hours at 30 is 240 straight time, plus a 240 premium at double time

Open this example

time and a half for a holiday shift

Hourly rate
30
Hours worked this week
8
Non-discretionary bonus this week
$0.00
Overtime starts after
0 hours
Overtime multiplier
1.5

Total pay for the week$360.00

arithmetic identity

Open this example

a multiplier of one is just ordinary pay

Hourly rate
30
Hours worked this week
8
Non-discretionary bonus this week
$0.00
Overtime starts after
0 hours
Overtime multiplier
1

Total pay for the week$240.00

degenerate case: the federal default, where no premium is owed

Open this example

Method and limits

What it assumes

  • A weekly overtime threshold, which is the federal standard.
  • The bonus entered is non-discretionary and attributable to this week.

What it deliberately does not model

  • Daily overtime and double-time rules in states such as California are not applied. Change the threshold to model them approximately.
  • Exempt employees are not entitled to overtime at all, which is a classification question rather than a calculation.
  • No federal law requires holiday premium pay. Any multiplier above one comes from your contract, a collective agreement, or state law.

Sources

Formula version 1.0.0 · definition 1.0.0 · United States · Report a problem with this calculator

Frequently asked questions

Why is the regular rate higher than my hourly rate?
Because a non-discretionary bonus counts as earnings for the week and has to be spread across the hours worked before the overtime multiplier applies. Paying one and a half times the bare hourly rate underpays.
Does a discretionary bonus count?
A genuinely discretionary bonus, decided after the fact and not promised in advance, is excluded. A bonus announced in advance to encourage output is not discretionary however it is labelled.