Georgia Overtime Calculator: the complete guide
Georgia has no overtime statute at all; overtime for a Georgia employee is governed entirely by the federal FLSA, 1.5x the regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek, with no daily-overtime trigger. Georgia is also one of the few states where the state's own minimum wage law (Ga. Code Sec. 34-4-3, setting $5.15/hr) is effectively irrelevant, because the federal $7.25/hr floor overrides it for the vast majority of employers covered by the FLSA.
This page covers the federal overtime calculation and clarifies why Georgia's on-the-books $5.15/hr figure doesn't actually apply to most workers, plus the exemption rules and filing process specific to Georgia.
How overtime works in Georgia
A non-exempt Georgia employee is owed 1.5x their regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a single workweek, with no state daily-overtime rule. A single long shift, by itself, produces no overtime unless the week's total hours exceed 40.
An employee earning $15.00/hr works 41 hours in one workweek. The first 40 hours are straight time: 40 x $15.00 = $600.00. The remaining 1 hour is overtime at 1.5x: 1 x $22.50 = $22.50. Total pay for the week: $600.00 + $22.50 = $622.50.
Why Georgia's $5.15/hr minimum wage doesn't apply to most workers
Georgia's own minimum wage statute technically sets $5.15/hr, a figure that predates the last federal increase and has never been updated. But almost every Georgia employer is covered by the federal FLSA, either through the $500,000 annual revenue enterprise-coverage test or through individual employee coverage for work connected to interstate commerce, and FLSA-covered employers must pay the higher federal floor of $7.25/hr. In practice, the $5.15/hr figure only matters for a narrow set of employers not covered by the FLSA at all, so Georgia functions as a $7.25/hr state for nearly everyone.
Georgia allows a tip credit of up to $5.12/hr, with a $2.13/hr minimum cash wage for tipped employees, matching the federal tip-credit structure exactly rather than setting its own separate tipped figures.
Exemptions in Georgia
Georgia relies entirely on the federal FLSA's exemption categories — executive, administrative, and professional employees paid a true salary of at least $684/week who also meet a duties test, plus outside sales and certain computer professionals — without adding its own state-specific overtime exemptions. Georgia's substantial logistics and distribution sector around Atlanta and Savannah makes correct classification of warehouse supervisors and shift leads a common point of dispute, since those roles frequently sit close to the exempt salary threshold.
The regular rate and bonuses
As under any FLSA-governed calculation, a nondiscretionary bonus must be folded into the regular rate before the 1.5x overtime multiplier applies. This is a common miss in logistics and distribution roles where attendance or productivity bonuses are routine and easy to leave out of an automated overtime calculation.
Working two roles at different pay rates for the same employer
Georgia's logistics and distribution employers around Atlanta and Savannah often schedule the same worker into two different roles in one workweek, each with its own hourly rate — a general-warehouse role and an equipment-certified role, for instance. Federal law, which governs this calculation in Georgia in the absence of any state overtime statute, does not allow 1.5x to be applied to whichever single rate happened to be in effect during the overtime hours. Instead, both rates are blended into one weighted-average regular rate for the week, and overtime is calculated from that blended figure.
As an alternative to the weighted-average method, federal regulations (29 CFR Sec. 778.419) allow an employer and employee to agree in advance, before the work is performed, that overtime hours will be paid at 1.5x the specific rate for whichever job the employee was actually doing during those overtime hours, rather than the blended average. This pre-agreement method is not automatic; without a genuine advance agreement meeting the regulation's requirements, the weighted-average method is the default, and an employer cannot retroactively pick whichever method produces a lower bill after the fact.
An employee works 30 hours at $20.00/hr in one role and 20 hours at $15.00/hr in a second role for the same employer, 50 hours total for the week. Straight-time earnings: (30 x $20.00) + (20 x $15.00) = $600.00 + $300.00 = $900.00. The weighted-average regular rate is $900.00 / 50 = $18.00/hr. Since straight-time pay already covers the base rate for every hour, only an extra 0.5x the regular rate is owed for the 10 overtime hours: 10 x ($18.00 x 0.5) = $90.00. Total pay for the week: $900.00 + $90.00 = $990.00.
Recordkeeping and your rights
Because Georgia has no state overtime statute of its own, an unpaid-overtime claim runs through the federal process, which makes an employee's own recordkeeping especially important. Keep your pay stubs, any written schedule, and your own log of daily hours worked in each role, since a multi-role regular-rate dispute is resolved almost entirely on that documentation, and the federal Wage and Hour Division generally allows two years to bring a claim (three years for a willful violation). The Georgia Department of Labor can also point you toward the correct federal complaint process even though it does not itself investigate private-sector overtime disputes the way some states' labor agencies do.
Common mistakes
Assuming Georgia's $5.15/hr statutory minimum wage actually applies. Paying $5.15/hr to a covered employee instead of the federal $7.25/hr floor that applies to nearly every FLSA-covered Georgia employer is a minimum wage violation, not a lawful use of the lower state figure.
Assuming Georgia has a daily-overtime rule. Treating a single 12-hour Georgia shift as automatically triggering overtime, the way California would, is incorrect; Georgia has no state overtime law at all and follows the federal weekly-only 40-hour rule.
Misclassifying a warehouse shift lead as exempt. Labeling a shift lead "exempt" because of a supervisory-sounding title, without confirming they meet both the $684/week salary test and the duties test, denies them overtime they may be legally owed for hours over 40.
Ignoring a nondiscretionary bonus in the overtime rate. Applying 1.5x to a bare hourly rate while an earned attendance or production bonus goes unaccounted for understates every overtime hour paid that week.
Georgia overtime quick reference
| Item | Georgia figure |
|---|---|
| Overtime trigger | Hours over 40/week (federal FLSA; Georgia has no state overtime law) |
| Daily overtime | None |
| Minimum wage in practice | $7.25/hr (federal floor governs FLSA-covered employers) |
| Tipped cash wage / tip credit | $2.13/hr cash + $5.12/hr credit = $7.25/hr |
| Filing agency | Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) |
How to file a claim
If your Georgia paycheck doesn't reflect the correct overtime calculation, raise it first with your employer or payroll department, since a missed bonus adjustment or a misclassified exempt role are common and often correctable errors. If that doesn't resolve it, you can file a complaint with the Georgia Department of Labor or directly with the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division for federal FLSA overtime violations, both at no cost. Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL).
Frequently asked questions
- Does Georgia have its own overtime law?
- No. Georgia has no state overtime statute of any kind; overtime is governed entirely by the federal FLSA, requiring 1.5x pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. There is no daily-overtime trigger under Georgia law.
- Is Georgia's minimum wage really $5.15/hr?
- That figure is technically still on the books in Ga. Code Sec. 34-4-3, but it is superseded by the federal $7.25/hr floor for the vast majority of employers, since almost every Georgia business is covered by the FLSA. In practice, Georgia functions as a $7.25/hr state for nearly all workers.
- Is there daily overtime in Georgia?
- No. Georgia has no daily-overtime rule of any kind; a single long shift produces no overtime by itself unless the workweek's total hours exceed 40. Only the federal 40-hour weekly threshold matters.
- What is Georgia's tipped minimum wage?
- Georgia allows a tip credit of up to $5.12/hr, meaning tipped employees can be paid a direct cash wage as low as $2.13/hr as long as tips bring their total pay to at least the full $7.25/hr minimum wage for every hour worked. This matches the federal tip-credit structure exactly.
- Do any Georgia cities set a higher minimum wage?
- No. Georgia does not permit local minimum wage ordinances above the state or federal figure, so there is no Atlanta-specific rate to check; the $7.25/hr federal floor applies statewide for FLSA-covered employers.
- How does a bonus affect Georgia overtime pay?
- A nondiscretionary bonus, such as an attendance or productivity bonus common in Georgia's logistics and distribution sector, must be folded into the regular rate before the 1.5x overtime multiplier is applied. Skipping this step understates every overtime hour paid in a week where such a bonus was earned.
- Who is exempt from overtime in Georgia?
- Georgia relies entirely on the federal FLSA's exemption categories, most commonly executive, administrative, and professional employees paid a true salary of at least $684/week who also meet a duties test. Georgia has not added any state-specific overtime exemptions beyond the federal list.
- Where do I file an unpaid overtime claim in Georgia?
- You can file a complaint with the Georgia Department of Labor or directly with the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division for federal FLSA overtime violations, both free of charge. Keep your pay stubs and your own hours log, since Georgia's lack of a state overtime statute makes the federal complaint process the primary route for most claims.