New Mexico Overtime Laws & Calculator

Weekly. New Mexico 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.

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 New Mexico: four tens, five eights and three long shifts all pay the same if the week's total is the same.

No New Mexico 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.

New Mexico has no seventh-day rule. Those hours count toward the workweek like any others, so a seven-day stretch usually produces overtime through the weekly total instead: seven eight-hour days is 56 hours, of which 16 are past 40.

Yes. NMSA 1978 § 50-4-22(D), part of the state Minimum Wage Act, says an employee cannot be required to work more than forty hours in any week of seven days unless the employee is paid one and one-half times the regular hourly rate for all hours over forty. The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions says the same on its wage and hour FAQ page: for covered, nonexempt employees, state law requires overtime at not less than one and one-half times the regular rate after 40 hours of work in a week of seven days. The one-and-a-half multiplier and the 40-hour threshold therefore match the federal rule (29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1)), and the main differences are in who is covered and what an employer owes for a violation. On the same page, the department says an employer cannot substitute compensatory time off for overtime pay and that an employee cannot give up time and a half by agreeing to straight-time pay. Those are the department's statements about state law; federal law separately lets state and local government employers give compensatory time off instead of overtime pay in limited circumstances (29 U.S.C. § 207(o)).

The multiplier and the 40-hour threshold are the same, so the main differences are in remedies and coverage. For a violation of § 50-4-22, NMSA 1978 § 50-4-26(C) makes the employer liable for the unpaid wages plus interest and an additional amount equal to twice the unpaid wages, plus costs and reasonable attorney fees under § 50-4-26(E). The federal statute, 29 U.S.C. § 216(b), makes the employer liable for the unpaid overtime plus an equal additional amount as liquidated damages, and it also provides for a reasonable attorney's fee and costs. The state Act defines an employer as any individual, partnership, corporation or other organized group of persons employing one or more employees at any one time (§ 50-4-21), with no stated size cutoff, but the state and local governments fall outside that definition except for the minimum wage. Its definition of employee leaves out, among others, executive, administrative and professional employees and forepersons, superintendents and supervisors; state and local government employees (except for the minimum wage); and salespersons or employees paid on a piecework, flat-rate or commission basis. Section 50-4-24 lists further overtime exemptions, including cotton ginning in counties where cotton is grown commercially if each employee works no more than fourteen weeks in a calendar year, employers of workers engaged in agriculture (as defined in section 203 of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act), and certain voluntary shift trades at air carriers. The federal rule has its own coverage and exemptions, so the state definitions are only part of the picture.

Under NMSA 1978 § 50-4-26(B), the director of the Labor Relations Division of the Department of Workforce Solutions enforces the Minimum Wage Act. The department’s FAQ says any employee who has not been paid earned wages may file a wage claim: download the claim form or get one at a department office, then email it to wage.claimssubmiss@state.nm.us, deliver it in person, or mail or fax it to a Wage and Hour office (Albuquerque 505-841-4400, Las Cruces 575-524-6195). It says a claim should include the hours worked and the rate of pay promised, and that a worker under 18 also needs a parent or legal guardian to sign. Employees can also bring a civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction (§ 50-4-26(D)), and § 50-4-26.1 makes it a violation to retaliate against someone for asserting a claim or right under the Act.

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 New Mexico.

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.