Daily Overtime by State: Who Pays OT After 8 Hours
Does your state pay overtime after 8 hours in a day? See the full daily-overtime table for California, Alaska, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, and more.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and is not tax, legal, or financial advice. Overtime rules change and vary by state; always check current guidance from your state labor department or the U.S. Department of Labor, or consult a qualified professional.
You worked a 12-hour day. Do you get overtime for it, or do you have to wait until you cross 40 hours for the week? The answer depends almost entirely on which state you work in.
Most workers assume a long day automatically earns extra pay. It usually doesn’t. Federal law counts your week, not your day. A short list of states go further and pay overtime based on daily hours, and only three of them use the classic “after 8 hours” trigger.
Here is which states have daily overtime, exactly when it kicks in, and the rule that keeps you from getting paid twice on the same hours.
Does Federal Law Pay Overtime After 8 Hours a Day?
No. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), overtime is owed only after you work more than 40 hours in a single workweek. There is no federal daily overtime.
The Department of Labor is direct about this. The FLSA “does not generally require… overtime compensation for hours in excess of eight per day, or for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays or regular days of rest.” A 10-hour Tuesday earns no federal overtime on its own. Neither does working a holiday or a weekend.
What matters federally is the workweek. The FLSA defines it as a fixed, regularly recurring period of 168 hours: seven consecutive 24-hour days. Your employer can start it on any day and any hour, but once set, it stays put. You cannot average two weeks together to dodge overtime, and only hours past 40 in that fixed week count.
So if you want to know whether a long day pays overtime, you are really asking a state question. That is where daily overtime lives.
Which States Have Daily Overtime? (Full Table)
A handful of states pay overtime based on daily hours worked. Only some use the 8-hour line. Others trigger at 10 or 12 hours, or only in specific industries.
The states with an “after 8 hours” rule are shown in bold.
| State | Daily threshold | Pay rate | Who it covers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | Over 8 hours | 1.5x (2x over 12) | Most nonexempt workers | 7th-consecutive-day rules add extra premium |
| Alaska | Over 8 hours | 1.5x | Most employees | Applies alongside the 40-hour weekly rule |
| Nevada | Over 8 hours | 1.5x | Only workers earning under 1.5x minimum wage | Higher earners get weekly OT only |
| Puerto Rico | Over 8 hours | 1.5x (2x in some cases) | Most nonexempt workers | Territory with its own daily-OT statute |
| Colorado | Over 12 hours | 1.5x | Most nonexempt workers | Also 12 consecutive hours; whichever pays more |
| Oregon | Over 10 hours | 1.5x | Many manufacturing employees | Industry-specific, not a general daily rule |
| Rhode Island | Sunday/holiday work | 1.5x | Many retail and other workers | Premium-pay rule, not a general 8-hour rule |
Everywhere else, the federal 40-hour weekly rule is the only overtime standard. If your state is not on this list, a long day alone won’t earn overtime.
The Three “After 8 Hours” States in Detail
California, Alaska, and Nevada are the states where daily overtime starts at the 8-hour mark. Each works a little differently.
California
California has the deepest daily-overtime rules in the country. For most nonexempt workers:
- Hours over 8 and up to 12 in a workday: paid at 1.5x.
- Hours over 12 in a workday: paid at 2x (double time).
- On the 7th consecutive day worked in a workweek: 1.5x for the first 8 hours, and 2x for anything beyond 8.
Say you work 11 hours in a day at $20/hour. The first 8 hours pay $20. The next 3 hours pay $30 (1.5x). Work 13 hours instead, and hours 9 through 12 pay $30 while the 13th hour pays $40 (2x).
There is a lot of nuance here. If you work in California, our dedicated guide on California daily overtime rules walks through the 8-hour, 12-hour, and 7th-day math in detail.
Alaska
Alaska keeps it simpler. Most employees earn 1.5x for hours worked over 8 in a day, on top of the standard 40-hour weekly rule.
There is no double-time tier and no wage test. Work a 10-hour day at $22/hour, and the last 2 hours pay $33 each. Alaska does exempt some small employers and specific job categories, so the rule reaches most workers but not every single one.
Nevada
Nevada has the trickiest rule, and it is the one most articles get wrong. Daily overtime after 8 hours applies only if your regular wage is less than 1.5 times the Nevada minimum wage.
Earn at or above that cutoff, and you get weekly overtime after 40 hours only. Earn below it, and you get 1.5x for hours over 8 in a workday.
The cutoff moves with the minimum wage. Nevada uses a single statewide minimum wage of $12.00/hour, which puts the daily-overtime cutoff around $18.00/hour. Because that figure can change, check the current Nevada minimum wage and multiply by 1.5 rather than trusting a fixed dollar amount. Ask yourself one question: is my hourly rate under 1.5x the current state minimum? If yes, your long days likely earn daily overtime.
States With a Different Daily Trigger
Some states have daily overtime, but not the 8-hour kind. Grouping them with California causes confusion, so it helps to see them separately.
Colorado
Colorado pays 1.5x for hours over 40 in a week, over 12 in a workday, or for any 12 consecutive hours, whichever calculation pays more. The trigger is 12 hours, not 8. A 10-hour Colorado day earns no daily overtime, though it still counts toward your 40-hour weekly total.
Oregon
Oregon has a daily-overtime rule after 10 hours, but it is limited to many manufacturing employees rather than the general workforce. It runs alongside the federal weekly rule. If you are not in a covered manufacturing role, Oregon’s daily rule likely does not apply to you.
Rhode Island
Rhode Island’s premium-pay rule requires 1.5x for many workers on Sundays and certain holidays. It is a day-of-the-week premium, not a rule about the number of hours in a day. Useful to know, but different in kind from the 8-hour states.
So “daily overtime” is not one uniform rule. The threshold, the covered industries, and the conditions attached all vary from state to state.
The “Whichever Pays More” Rule: Why You Don’t Get Paid Twice
This is where a lot of paychecks trip people up. In a state with both daily and weekly overtime, can the same hour count as both? No. The rule is anti-pyramiding, often described as “whichever pays more.”
Your employer runs the numbers under the daily rule and under the weekly rule, then pays you the larger result. The same hour is never counted twice.
An example makes it clear. Say you are in California at $20/hour and work three 12-hour days: 36 hours total for the week.
- Weekly rule: 36 hours is under 40, so no weekly overtime. Straight time only.
- Daily rule: each 12-hour day gives 8 hours at straight time and 4 hours at 1.5x. That is 12 daily overtime hours across the three days.
The daily rule pays far more here, so that is what you get, even though you never hit 40 hours for the week. Now flip it. Work five 9-hour days (45 hours). The daily rule gives you 5 hours of overtime (one per day). The weekly rule also gives you 5 overtime hours (45 minus 40). They match, so you are not paid 10 overtime hours, just 5.
You get the better of the two calculations, never both stacked on top of each other.
How to Check and Calculate Your Own Overtime
Start with two facts: which state you work in, and which day your workweek begins. Your pay stub or your HR team can confirm the workweek start. Both matter, because the same schedule can produce different overtime depending on where the week’s line falls.
Then match your state against the table above. If you are in California, Alaska, or Nevada (and under the wage cutoff), your long days may earn daily overtime. If you are anywhere else without a daily rule, focus on your weekly total instead.
To run the actual numbers, the overtime calculator handles the 1.5x math, and the overtime rules by state tool shows what your specific state requires. If you are not sure whether you are even eligible for overtime, the FLSA exemption checker helps sort that out first.
If you track hours on your phone, Timeclock44 has a per-job daily-overtime toggle set to 8 hours and a separate weekly toggle at 40, each with its own week-start day. Turn on daily overtime in a daily-OT state and your timecard math lines up with the basic state rule. It applies a flat 8-hour daily rule, so it does not model California’s double-time-after-12, the 7th-day premium, or Nevada’s wage test. Treat it as a tracking and estimate aid, not a compliance authority.
For the bigger picture, our FLSA plain-English guide covers the federal baseline, and the double time pay guide explains when 2x kicks in. If you work a compressed schedule, the 4/10 schedule overtime guide shows how ten-hour days interact with daily rules.
Where state and federal overtime rules differ, the law most favorable to the worker applies. So if your state pays daily overtime and federal law does not, you get the daily overtime.
References
- U.S. Department of Labor: Overtime Pay — Federal overview confirming overtime is required after 40 hours in a workweek, with no general daily requirement.
- DOL Fact Sheet #23: Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA — Definition of the workweek and the 40-hour standard, including the no-averaging rule.
- California DIR: Overtime FAQ — Official California rules for daily overtime, double time after 12 hours, and 7th-consecutive-day pay.
- Alaska Department of Labor: Minimum Wage Standard and Overtime Hours — Alaska’s daily overtime rule of 1.5x for hours over 8 in a day.
- Nevada Office of the Labor Commissioner: Overtime — Nevada’s wage-conditional daily overtime rule tied to 1.5x the state minimum wage.
- Colorado CDLE: Overtime (COMPS Order) — Colorado’s COMPS Order daily overtime rules, including the 12-hour and 12-consecutive-hour triggers.
- Oregon BOLI: Overtime for Manufacturing and Canneries — Oregon’s manufacturing daily-overtime rule after 10 hours and general overtime guidance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does federal law require overtime after 8 hours a day?
No. The FLSA only requires overtime after 40 hours in a workweek. Daily overtime is a state-level rule, so a long single day does not trigger federal overtime by itself unless it pushes your weekly total past 40 hours.
Which states pay overtime after 8 hours in a day?
California, Alaska, and Nevada pay overtime after 8 hours in a workday, plus Puerto Rico. Nevada only applies daily overtime to workers earning less than 1.5 times the state minimum wage. Colorado and Oregon have daily overtime too, but their triggers are 12 hours and 10 hours, not 8.
Do I get overtime for working 10 hours in one day?
Only if you are in a daily-overtime state and you cross its threshold, or if those extra hours push your total past 40 hours for the workweek. In a state with no daily rule, a 10-hour day alone does not earn overtime.
What is the difference between daily and weekly overtime?
Daily overtime is triggered by the number of hours you work in a single day. Weekly overtime is triggered by hours worked over 40 in the workweek. Federal law only has weekly overtime; some states add a daily rule on top of it.
Can I get both daily and weekly overtime on the same hours?
No. The whichever-pays-more rule, also called anti-pyramiding, means the same hours are not counted twice. Your employer calculates your pay under both the daily and weekly rules and pays you the larger amount, not both stacked together.
When does double time start in California?
Double time (2x your regular rate) starts after 12 hours in a single workday. It also applies after 8 hours on the 7th consecutive day worked in a single workweek.
Does Colorado pay overtime after 8 hours?
No. Colorado's daily overtime trigger is after 12 hours in a workday, or any 12 consecutive hours, not after 8. You get whichever calculation pays more between that daily rule and the 40-hour weekly rule.
Does Nevada always pay daily overtime after 8 hours?
No. Nevada only pays daily overtime after 8 hours if your regular wage is less than 1.5 times the state minimum wage. Workers who earn at or above that threshold get weekly overtime after 40 hours only.