Overtime Pay Calculator — California (2026)
Overtime in California starts with the federal FLSA floor: 1.5× your regular rate for every hour beyond 40 in a workweek. Some states add daily overtime or double-time rules on top. This calculator shows gross overtime pay and what survives federal, FICA and California taxation in 2026. California uses a progressive income tax with 9 brackets running from 1.00% up to 12.30%, applied after a state standard deduction of $5,363.
California Overtime Pay Calculator
Your base pay per hour.
Hours beyond 40 in the workweek.
Overtime rules that apply in California
California is the strictest state in the country: 1.5× after 8 hours in a day and after 40 in a week, 2× after 12 hours in a day, and 2× after 8 hours on the seventh consecutive workday.
The "regular rate" is not just your base hourly wage — non-discretionary bonuses, shift differentials and commissions must be folded in before multiplying by 1.5, which raises the true overtime rate for many tech workers around Los Angeles.
Is overtime taxed more in California?
No — overtime is ordinary wages. It can feel over-taxed because per-period withholding tables annualize a big check as if every week looked like that, temporarily withholding at a higher rate that you recover at filing.
The California layer applies to overtime exactly as to base pay, at rates up to 12.30%.
Exempt vs non-exempt in California
Salaried does not mean exempt. To be exempt from overtime a worker must clear both a salary threshold and a duties test; misclassification is one of the most common wage claims filed in California.
Cost of living in California sits 42% above the national average (index 142), median household income is $91,905, and a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles rents for roughly $2,450 a month.
Local and payroll taxes California adds on top
State Disability Insurance (SDI) of 1.2% is withheld from all wages with no wage cap — an extra line most other states do not have. That deduction sits outside the federal and state income tax lines, so build it into your own budget on top of the numbers above.
California has no city-level income tax, but high sales tax (7.25%–10.75%) and SDI payroll deduction (1.1% on wages up to $153,164).
Overtime hours carry exactly the same local withholding as regular California hours; the extra pay is taxed at your marginal rates, not at a special penalty rate, even though the deduction line looks bigger.
Working across a state line from California
California has no income-tax reciprocity agreements, so if you live here and work across a state line you generally file a nonresident return in the work state and claim a credit at home to avoid double taxation.
Remote and hybrid work complicates this further: most states tax income where the work is physically performed, so a Los Angeles resident spending part of the year at a client site in Nevada may owe a nonresident return there. Keep a day-count log if you split time between states.
The rest of your California tax bill
California charges a 7.25% state sales tax, homeowners pay an average effective property tax of 0.71% of market value, and the minimum wage in force during 2026 is $16.90 an hour.
District taxes lift combined rates to 10.75% in parts of Los Angeles County.
Income tax is only one part of a state's take. California recovers revenue through sales and property tax as well, which is why headline income tax rates alone are a poor guide to how far a salary really goes. California exempts Social Security but fully taxes pensions, 401(k) and IRA withdrawals; early distributions face an additional 2.5% state penalty.
California vs Nevada on the same salary
On a $75,000 salary, a single filer keeps about $58,561 a year in California against roughly $61,593 in Nevada — a difference of $3,031, or $253 a month.
Effective combined rates are 21.9% in California and 17.9% in Nevada. Set that gap against living costs: index 142 here versus 102 there, with property tax at 0.71% and 0.55% respectively.
California income tax brackets 2026 (single filer)
| Taxable income | Rate |
|---|---|
| $0 – $10,756 | 1.00% |
| $10,756 – $25,499 | 2.00% |
| $25,499 – $40,245 | 4.00% |
| $40,245 – $55,866 | 6.00% |
| $55,866 – $70,606 | 8.00% |
| $70,606 – $360,659 | 9.30% |
| $360,659 – $432,787 | 10.30% |
| $432,787 – $721,314 | 11.30% |
| $721,314 and up | 12.30% |