Pennsylvania Overtime Calculator

Pennsylvania has both. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) applies to most employers in the state, and Pennsylvania's own Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act (PMWA) adds additional protections on top. In several areas — including how overtime is calculated for salaried workers and the ban on the fluctuating workweek method — the PMWA is stricter than federal law. When the two laws conflict, whichever gives the employee more protection generally controls.

Overtime in Pennsylvania begins after 40 hours in a single workweek. There is no daily overtime threshold — working a 10-hour shift does not trigger overtime on its own. Your employer must pay at least 1.5 times your regular rate for every hour worked beyond 40 in that week. Each workweek is evaluated independently; hours cannot be averaged across two or more weeks.

The fluctuating workweek is a federal method that allows some employers to pay salaried workers a fixed weekly salary regardless of hours, then add only a half-time premium for overtime — which lowers the effective overtime rate as hours increase. Pennsylvania law bans this method. In Pennsylvania, salaried non-exempt employees must always receive 1.5 times their regular rate for overtime hours, calculated on a standard 40-hour week basis. If your employer uses the fluctuating workweek method in Pennsylvania, that may be a wage violation.

Being paid a salary does not automatically exempt an employee from overtime. Salaried workers who earn less than $684 per week ($35,568 per year) are generally entitled to overtime pay regardless of their job duties. Even workers above that salary threshold are only exempt if their job duties qualify them as executive, administrative, or professional under the FLSA and PMWA standards. Many salaried workers in Pennsylvania are legally entitled to overtime and may not know it.

Yes. Tipped employees in Pennsylvania are entitled to overtime for hours worked over 40 in a workweek, calculated at 1.5 times their regular rate (which includes both the cash wage and tips received). Pennsylvania also applies a stricter tip threshold than federal law: an employee must receive at least $135 per month in tips to qualify for the tip credit. The PMWA also enforces the 80/20 rule — if a tipped employee spends more than 20% of their workweek on non-tip-producing duties, the employer must pay the full minimum wage for that time.

Pennsylvania gives employees three years to file an unpaid overtime claim under the PMWA — longer than the two-year federal limit under the FLSA (three years for willful violations). You can file a wage claim with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry or pursue a private civil action. Because the PMWA's statute of limitations is more generous, many employees benefit from filing under state law rather than federal law when recovering unpaid overtime.