Virginia Overtime Laws & Calculator

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

No Virginia 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.

Virginia 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.

Virginia has its own overtime statute, but the basic rule is the federal one. The Virginia Overtime Wage Act, Va. Code § 40.1-29.2, makes an employer liable for violating the overtime requirements of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and says the federal definitions of employer and employee, exemptions and overtime calculation methods apply. The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry describes the Act as requiring one and a half times the regular rate for all hours over 40 in a workweek. So the weekly 40-hour threshold, the 1.5× premium and the exemptions follow federal law; what differs is how a claim is brought, the filing deadline and who enforces it. A separate section, Va. Code § 40.1-29.3, sets its own overtime premium of one and a half times the regular rate over 40 hours in a workweek for employees of derivative carriers (air carriers, as the statute defines them) and, as amended by 2026 Acts ch. 1040 (which the Department says applies beginning July 1, 2026), for people employed by a home care agency or other third-party provider to provide direct support services.

A worker can bring a court action for unpaid overtime under Va. Code § 40.1-29.2, which sends the claim through the civil-action process in § 40.1-29(K); § 40.1-29.2 describes the employer's liability as the remedies and damages available under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act in an action brought that way. Under § 40.1-29(K), as amended in 2026 (Chapter 1040), the court awards the wages owed, an equal amount as liquidated damages, prejudgment interest (eight percent a year under § 40.1-29(H)) and reasonable attorney fees and costs. The same subsection says that if the court finds the employer knowingly failed to pay wages in accordance with that section, it awards triple the wages due plus fees and costs; § 40.1-29(A) defines wages to include overtime wages. In any action to recover unpaid wages commenced on or after July 1, 2026, an employer that shows it acted in good faith and had reasonable grounds can avoid additional damages and penalties, but only if it pays all wages unlawfully withheld within 14 days of being notified of the violation (§ 40.1-29(P)). Section 40.1-29.2 says an action accrues under the FLSA's limitation rules and must be commenced within three years after accrual; the U.S. Department of Labor says the federal limit is generally two years, or three for willful violations.

Since July 1, 2026, the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI) may investigate and enforce overtime issues, according to its Payment of Wage page. Under Va. Code § 40.1-29(G), the Commissioner can start an investigation on a complaint from an employee or an interested third party, and cannot disclose the complainant’s identity without that person’s consent. The Commissioner can begin administrative proceedings or refer the matter to the Attorney General, who can bring a civil action after a referral (§ 40.1-29(G), (N)). DOLI says claims for unpaid wages can be submitted electronically through the DOLI Portal, while paper claim forms must be physically signed and mailed, because faxed or emailed forms cannot be accepted. For overtime earned before July 1, 2026, DOLI says complaints may go to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, or the worker may pursue private litigation. A worker can also sue directly without exhausting the administrative remedies in § 40.1-29 (§ 40.1-29(K)).

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 Virginia.

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.