Kentucky Overtime Laws & Calculator
Kentucky follows the federal weekly rule and adds a seventh-consecutive-day premium: work all seven days of a workweek and the seventh pays time and a half — unless the employee is not permitted to work more than 40 hours that week. Put your week in below — the thresholds on this page are already loaded, and every line of the result names the rule it came from.
KRS § 337.050
live · follows the calculator
- 7th day in a row → ×1.5
- 40h/week → ×1.5
this week · 62 h · under Kentucky’s rules
A differential is not a separate bonus. It folds into the regular rate the multiplier is applied to, so every overtime hour that week gets more valuable — paying 1.5× on base plus 1.0× on the differential is the classic short-pay.
no signup · runs in your browser · nothing you type is sent anywhere
The full receipt — every line opens into its arithmetic
62h worked
$1,606.00
Assumes a Sunday workweek. Your employer sets this and it is printed on your stub — the app asks properly.
+$242.00 over the $1,364.00 a flat tracker shows for this week.
KRS § 337.050 · reviewed · How we calculate
This, automatically, every shift.
The app is the same engine running on every shift you work — offline, no account. It is on Google Play now; the iPhone version is next.
Overtally for iPhone — coming soonThe rules
| rule | threshold | rate | source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly overtime | Over 40 h in a workweek | 1.5× the regular rate | KRS § 337.050 |
| Daily overtime | No Kentucky threshold | 1× a long day pays straight time until the week passes 40 | — |
| Seventh consecutive day | Every hour worked on the 7th day of one workweek | 1.5× the regular rate | KRS § 337.050 |
| Regular rate | Base wage plus nondiscretionary bonuses and shift differentials | 1× what every multiplier above is applied to | 29 C.F.R. Part 778 — what goes into the regular rate |
There is one count in Kentucky: hours inside the workweek. The length of any single day matters only through the weekly total.
The seventh-day premium turns entirely on where your workweek starts. The calculator above applies it against a Sunday workweek — seven days that straddle your employer’s actual boundary can owe nothing at all, which is why the app asks you for the real one.
The threshold is only half of the arithmetic. The other half is the workweek: a fixed, recurring 168-hour period your employer designates, which can begin on any day at any hour and is usually printed on your stub. It decides which hours land past 40, and it is not necessarily the calendar week or your pay period. Two pay stubs covering the same seven days can owe different amounts if the workweek boundary sits in a different place.
Rules change at the state line — every state and province sits side by side in one table. The premium itself is time and a half, half the regular rate again on each overtime hour.
- Like California's, the count resets at the workweek boundary rather than rolling.
A week, worked out
Weekly overtime does not show in the shape of a week — 40 hours can be four days or six.
Seven eight-hour shifts across the workweek — the seventh day triggers Kentucky’s time-and-a-half premium. At $24.00 an hour, that is 56h across 7 days in Kentucky.
40h of it is straight time — $960.00. The 8h worked on the seventh consecutive day pay time and a half, $36.00 an hour — $288.00. The 8h past 40 in the week pay time and a half, $36.00 an hour — $288.00. The week comes to $1,536.00.
The ledger in the calculator arranges the same money the way payroll does: every hour at the base rate first — $1,344.00 — and then the premium added on top of it. Same total, different bookkeeping. A tracker that multiplies $24.00 by every hour and stops there reports $1,344.00 for this week, which is $192.00 short.
Who is not covered
Overtime rules do not reach every job. The best-known carve-outs are the executive, administrative and professional exemptions — the white-collar exemptions — and they turn on the work actually performed together with a salary basis and a salary level. Job titles are not part of the test: calling a shift lead a manager does not by itself change what the week owes, and neither does paying someone a salary.
Other categories sit outside the ordinary rule as well — outside sales, certain commissioned retail work, some drivers covered by the Motor Carrier Act, farm work, and a number of seasonal and transport jobs. The federal definitions are written out in 29 C.F.R. Part 541, linked in the sources below.
Kentucky writes its own coverage and exemptions too, and they are not a copy of the federal list — the statute in the sources is where they are set out. If the number above and your stub disagree and you are plainly covered, the difference is usually one of two things: the workweek your employer designated, or the regular rate — a bonus or a differential folded in, or left out.
Questions people actually ask
Is overtime daily or weekly in Kentucky?
Weekly. Kentucky sets no daily threshold, so a twelve-hour day owes no premium on its own — those hours go into the week's total like any others, and the count that decides your pay is hours past 40 in a single workweek.
Do four 10-hour days mean overtime in Kentucky?
No. Four ten-hour days is 40 hours, and the weekly rule starts past 40 hours, not at them. Day length does not matter in Kentucky: four tens, five eights and three long shifts all pay the same if the week's total is the same.
Does Kentucky pay double time?
No Kentucky statute sets a double-time rate. Where double time appears on a stub here it comes from a union agreement, a company policy or a holiday practice — worth having in writing, but it is an agreement rather than the law. What the statute requires is time and a half past 40 hours in a workweek, with no daily threshold.
What if I work seven days in a row in Kentucky?
Working all seven days of one workweek makes the seventh day premium-rated at one and a half times the regular rate. The count is per workweek rather than rolling, so a seven-day stretch split across two workweeks does not trigger it.
Does Kentucky’s seventh-day rule pay double time, and does it apply to short weeks?
No. Under KRS § 337.050, the seventh consecutive day worked in a workweek pays time and a half (1.5×) for all hours, with no double-time tier. Furthermore, subsection (2)(a) provides that subsection (1) does not apply where the employee is not permitted to work more than 40 hours in the workweek — so seven short days totaling 40 hours or fewer owe no seventh-day premium.
Do bonuses and shift differentials change my overtime rate?
Usually, yes. The multiplier is applied to the regular rate, not to your base wage, and the regular rate takes in nondiscretionary bonuses, production and attendance bonuses, and shift differentials for the week they were earned. An overtime hour in a week with a night differential is worth more than base × 1.5. Bonuses that are genuinely discretionary — not promised in advance — stay out of it. The federal rules for building the regular rate are at 29 C.F.R. Part 778 and apply in Kentucky.
I am paid a salary — does that mean no overtime?
Not by itself. A salary is a way of paying, not an exemption. The white-collar exemptions turn on the work actually performed together with how and how much you are paid, and the duties tests at 29 C.F.R. Part 541 do not include job titles. A salaried employee whose duties fall outside those tests is owed overtime on the same 40-hour week as anyone else.
Nearby states
Rules stop at the state line, and the work often does not. These are the ones checked most often next to Kentucky.
- Tennessee40h/week
- Ohio40h/week
- Indiana40h/week
- Virginia40h/week
- West Virginia40h/week
sources
- KRS § 337.050
- KRS § 337.285 — time and a half for employment in excess of forty hours
- 29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1) — the federal 40-hour rule
- 29 C.F.R. Part 778 — what goes into the regular rate
- 29 C.F.R. Part 541 — executive, administrative and professional exemptions
Every figure on this page traces to the statute or agency page above. If one is out of date, tell us — corrections ship the same week.
Overtally computes what you should be paid before taxes. It does not calculate take-home pay, withholding or deductions, and it is not legal advice — it is your own record and your own estimate.