What the US rule actually says
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employees who are covered and not exempt must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek, at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rate of pay. The Act sets no limit on how many hours someone aged 16 or older may work in a week. It does not require a premium for Saturdays, Sundays, holidays or rest days as such; those only attract overtime if the 40-hour threshold is crossed. The workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, seven consecutive 24-hour days. It need not match the calendar week, and averaging hours over two or more weeks is not permitted.
Regular rate is not the same as hourly rate
The US premium is calculated on the regular rate, which the Department of Labor defines as all remuneration for employment apart from specific statutory exclusions such as reimbursed expenses, discretionary bonuses, gifts, and pay for vacation, holidays or illness when no work was performed. Where earnings are set per piece, by salary or on commission, the regular rate is the total pay for the week divided by the total hours actually worked. The department's own worked example: a 45-hour week at a fixed salary of 405 dollars gives a regular rate of 9 dollars, and the extra owed is 5 overtime hours at one-half that rate, 22.50 dollars. A salary covering more than 40 hours does not discharge the obligation.
Why the UK looks nothing like this
GOV.UK states the position directly: employers do not have to pay workers extra for overtime, though average pay for the total hours worked must not fall below the National Minimum Wage. Overtime rates, where they exist, come from the employment contract rather than from statute, and normal working hours are whatever that contract fixes. What the UK does regulate is volume rather than price. A worker cannot work more than 48 hours a week on average, normally averaged over 17 weeks, unless they choose to opt out, and workers under 18 are capped at 8 hours a day and 40 a week. Several sectors are excepted, including jobs requiring 24-hour staffing and the emergency services.
What this means for your own records
Two very different regimes, one shared consequence: the number that decides anything is a total for a defined period, not a feeling about a long week. In the US that period is the fixed workweek and the totals cannot be smoothed across weeks. In the UK it is a rolling average across roughly four months, so a single heavy week tells you nothing and a heavy quarter tells you a lot. Either way the useful record is per day, captured as the day happens, with the period totals derived from it. This page is a general explainer and not legal advice; where a specific case turns on the answer, your national labor authority is the place to take it.
In short
- In the US, covered non-exempt employees get at least time and one-half over 40 hours in a fixed 168-hour workweek, and weeks cannot be averaged together.
- The US premium is based on the regular rate, which includes most remuneration, not just the stated hourly figure.
- In the UK there is no statutory overtime premium; average pay must simply stay at or above the National Minimum Wage.
- The UK instead caps volume at 48 hours a week on average over 17 weeks, with an opt-out and sector exceptions.
- Rules differ by country and by state. Treat this as background and your national labor authority as the answer.
Related guides
- How to Calculate Work Hours: Subtract the start time from the end time, subtract any unpaid break, convert what is left to decimal hours, and total the days.
- Working Hours in a Year: A 365-day year holds 8,760 hours.
- What Makes a Good Timesheet: A good timesheet carries a date, a start time, an end time, any unpaid break, a daily total and a period total, plus whatever the work is attributed to.