About DollarsPerHour

DollarsPerHour is a free wage, salary, and overtime calculator for paycheck math. Enter an hourly rate and the hours you worked at straight time, time-and-a-half, and double time, and the calculator returns your weekly gross pay along with the breakdown for each rate. No signups, no paywalls, no data collection.

A brief history

DollarsPerHour started as a small utility I built for hourly workers who wanted a faster way to sanity-check a paycheck — figure out what a week of mixed straight time and overtime should add up to before the stub showed up. Like a lot of the tools across my sites, it existed on one machine first, then went online because that was easier than emailing it around.

Over the years it picked up readers — shift workers, supervisors writing schedules, students taking on their first hourly job — and most of the small improvements came from their questions. In 2026 I rebuilt the site on a modern static stack (Next.js) for speed, accessibility, and easier maintenance, and folded in clearer worked examples and references along the way.

How the calculations are built and verified

The core math on this site is straightforward: weekly gross pay is the sum of hours times rate at each tier — straight time at the base hourly rate, time-and-a-half at 1.5×, and double time at 2×. The calculator uses standard FLSA-style overtime math, which is the federal baseline in the United States: hours over 40 in a workweek are paid at 1.5× the regular rate, with double time applied per employer or contract policy.

Overtime rules are jurisdictional, though. State law (California's daily-overtime rule, for example), union contracts, and employer policy can all change the threshold or the multiplier. This calculator is a quick estimator using the federal default, so always check the rules that actually apply to your job. I read every piece of reader feedback I get on this calculator — if a worked example is unclear or a rate breakdown is wrong for your situation, please email me, because reader reports are the best way bugs and gaps in the explanations get caught.

A note on appropriate use

DollarsPerHour is built for estimating gross pay and understanding the math behind a paycheck. It is not a substitute for tax, legal, or payroll advice. Net pay depends on federal, state, and local withholding, benefits, garnishments, and pre- and post-tax deductions that this tool does not model. For paycheck decisions that involve disputes, classification questions (exempt vs. non-exempt), or anything tax-significant, talk to a CPA or a labor attorney.

About the author

Hi, I'm Jimmy Raymond. I built DollarsPerHour as part of a larger network of free calculators I've maintained for more than two decades. I started the original site while working through problems in school at New Mexico Tech and the University of New Mexico, where I earned a B.S. in Environmental Engineering and a B.S. in Computer Science.

Professionally I've worked in safety-critical aerospace and space systems, real-time embedded software, and full-stack web development — contexts where “almost right” isn't right. That discipline is where the calculators on this site get their design philosophy: the formula has to be correct, the assumptions have to be stated clearly, and the limits of the tool have to be honest. A paycheck calculator is a low-stakes example of that, but the principle is the same — show the math, name the assumption, and let the reader judge whether it fits their situation.

I'm based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Contact

Email me at aj@ajdesigner.com for corrections, calculator requests, or general feedback. You can also find me on LinkedIn.

— Jimmy