Restaurant overtime turns on weekly hours, regular rate, and tip-credit rules. Everhour supports longer-term budget tracking after the math.
Calculate regular and overtime earnings based on your hours and rate. Supports standard time-and-a-half and double-time multipliers.
Total hours including overtime
Typically 40h/week
The calculator gives you the number — Everhour takes it from there.
One click and you're timing. Start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Everhour.
Set a budget, assign rates, and get alerted before you're over.
Measurement
Track your budget through time or costs
Every report you need — configured your way, always up to date.
Tracked hours flow straight into a polished invoice — no copy-paste, no manual math.
For U.S. restaurant workers, the federal baseline is straightforward for covered nonexempt employees: overtime applies to hours worked over 40 in one fixed FLSA workweek, paid at not less than 1.5 times the regular rate. A restaurant or fast-food business is enterprise-covered by the FLSA at $500,000 or more in annual gross sales, and individual coverage can also apply through interstate-commerce work such as credit card transactions.
The result tells you gross overtime pay for one workweek, not whether a shift was busy, scheduled late, or worked on a holiday. The FLSA workweek is a fixed 168-hour period made of seven consecutive 24-hour periods. Hours cannot be averaged across two or more workweeks to avoid overtime. More protective state, local, or CBA rules can require a higher wage, lower threshold, or different treatment.
The biggest restaurant mistake is using only the cash wage for tipped employees. A tipped employee customarily and regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips. Under federal tip-credit rules, the employer must pay at least $2.13 per hour in direct cash wages and may claim no more than $5.12 per hour toward the $7.25 federal minimum wage.
For tipped overtime, the calculation starts from the full minimum wage or a higher regular rate, not from $2.13 alone. With the maximum federal tip credit, the federal overtime cash floor is ($7.25 x 1.5) - $5.12 = $5.76 per overtime hour, before any higher regular rate or more protective state rule. Distributed service charges are included in the regular rate; tips themselves are treated differently from service charges.
For a non-tipped restaurant worker with one hourly rate, calculate regular pay for the first 40 hours and overtime pay for hours over 40. Example: a covered nonexempt line cook works 45 hours in one fixed FLSA workweek at a $16.80 regular rate. Regular pay is 40 hours x $16.80 = $672.00. Overtime hours are 5, paid at $16.80 x 1.5 = $25.20 per hour.
The overtime amount is 5 x $25.20 = $126.00, so gross pay for the week is $798.00. If the worker has multiple rates, service charges, board, lodging, or facilities included in compensation, use the regular rate formula: total workweek compensation, excluding statutory exclusions, divided by total hours worked. Then apply the overtime premium to hours worked over 40 in that same workweek.
A one-off calculation is enough when you need to check a single completed workweek: one employee, one fixed workweek, known hours, known regular rate, and no dispute over tip credit, service charges, breaks, or state rules. It is also enough for a quick gross-pay estimate before a payroll entry is reviewed by the responsible payroll or accounting person.
A managed workflow matters when restaurant overtime repeats across locations, job codes, budgets, or pay periods. Approved time records, manager review, and payroll handoff reduce disputes over missed punches, short rest breaks, on-premises waiting time, and tipped wage treatment. Everhour Project Budgeting can track time and money budgets, recurring budget periods, and email alerts so labor spending is reviewed before it becomes a payroll surprise.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
High Performer
G2
Summer 2026
Best Ease Of Use
Capterra
Summer 2026
Rated in the top time trackers across G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius — with consistent praise for ease of use, integrations, and support.
Covered nonexempt tipped restaurant workers get overtime under the federal baseline for hours worked over 40 in a fixed FLSA workweek. The overtime rate is based on the full minimum wage or higher regular rate, not just the reduced direct cash wage. State, local, or CBA rules can require more protective treatment.
No. Under the FLSA federal baseline, each fixed 168-hour workweek stands alone. A restaurant cannot average 32 hours in one week and 48 hours in the next week to avoid overtime. The 48-hour week has 8 overtime hours for a covered nonexempt employee unless a more protective rule gives a greater benefit.
No. When the federal maximum tip credit is used, tipped overtime is not 1.5 times $2.13. The federal cash overtime floor is calculated from the full $7.25 minimum wage: ($7.25 x 1.5) - $5.12 = $5.76 per overtime hour, before any higher regular rate or state rule applies.
Short rest breaks of 20 minutes or less count as hours worked under the FLSA. Waiting time can also count when the employee is engaged to wait, and on-premises on-call time is working time. The exact treatment is fact-specific, so payroll should classify the time before the overtime calculation is finalized.
No. A restaurant manager is not exempt by title alone. The executive exemption requires salary-basis pay of at least $684 per week, management as the primary duty, direction of at least two full-time employees or equivalent, and hire/fire authority or meaningful input. Job duties control the analysis.
Everhour Project Budgeting tracks time and money budgets as work is logged, with recurring budget periods and email alerts at defined thresholds. Restaurants can use those budget signals to watch labor spending by location, event, or operating period before overtime cost reaches payroll.
Everhour Overtimes supports daily and weekly overtime limits, 1.5x and 2x tiers, and overtime visibility in Team Hours. Managers can review overtime hours before payroll, then use the Payroll dashboard to calculate overtime pay and gross pay from hourly cost and tracked time.
Track restaurant labor against recurring time and money budgets before payroll closes. Everhour gives managers budget alerts and spending visibility tied to logged hours and overtime cost.
14-day free trial · No credit card · Cancel anytime
