Are your overtime hours actually worth it?
Run a full audit on your paycheck. Enter your rate and hours, and this engine shows what your overtime really pays per hour after taxes — not the number on the schedule board, the number that lands in your account.
Baseline Pay
Your straight-time setup — the foundation every premium hour is built on.
Overtime Breakdown
Every premium hour you worked this pay period, by multiplier.
The Yield Engine
Your premium hours, audited. The tax on your OT is calculated the honest way — the extra tax those hours actually cause, at your marginal bracket.
What OT looks like (gross)
What actually lands (net)
| Gross regular pay | $0 |
| Gross overtime pay (1.5×) | $0 |
| Gross double-time pay (2.0×) | $0 |
| Gross holiday / hazard pay | $0 |
| Gross shift differential pay | $0 |
| Total gross pay | $0 |
| Federal income tax (est.) | −$0 |
| State income tax (est.) | −$0 |
| FICA — Social Security + Medicare (7.65%) | −$0 |
| Estimated net pay (whole check) | $0 |
| Tax drag caused by your premium hours alone | −$0 |
The Verdict
Is the extra grind converting into real money — or is the tax drag eating your hours?
⚠ OT Burnout Alert
Your premium hours are keeping less than 65¢ of every gross dollar.
OT Cleared — Hours Are Paying
Your premium hours are converting to spendable cash at a healthy rate.
Paycheck Routing Guide
Where this period's net OT pay should go the day it lands.
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Debt snowballSmallest balance first — kill a card, free a payment.$0 50%
-
Buffer fundBuild toward one full paycheck of cushion.$0 30%
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Guilt-freeSpent on purpose, no apologies — this is the point of the grind.$0 20%
Paycheck Yield Breakdown
| Gross pay (whole check) | $0 |
| Federal withholding (est.) | −$0 |
| State withholding (est.) | −$0 |
| FICA (est.) | −$0 |
| Net pay (whole check) | $0 |
Screenshot this card or download it — the card is print-clean, so it also comes out sharp from a browser print. Then compare it against your actual pay stub. If the stub shows a bigger tax bite than this estimate, your W-4 withholding is set higher than your real bracket — that's fixable.
Keep the audit going
Log every OT hour. Make them count.
The Overtime & Shift Worker Cash Flow Log and the Paycheck-to-Paycheck Weekly Planner turn audits like this one into a system — track every premium hour, route every dollar, and watch the debt shrink on paper.
Get them on Gumroad →Straight answers
Why does a big OT week sometimes barely move my check?
Because overtime is taxed at your marginal rate, not your average rate. Your regular pay fills up the cheap tax brackets first, so every OT dollar lands in the highest bracket you've reached — plus 7.65% FICA on top. A fat OT week can also push your annualized income into the next bracket on that check's withholding math. The hours still pay; they just pay less per hour than the 1.5× on the board suggests. That gap is exactly what the Real Net Hourly Yield above measures.
How do shift differentials work?
A differential is an extra amount per hour — say $1.50/hr — paid on top of your base rate for nights, weekends, or hard-to-fill shifts. It usually applies to every hour on that shift, including overtime hours, and at many employers the OT premium is calculated on your rate including the differential. This tool adds the differential on your straight-time hours to your baseline and counts it on premium hours too, so check your own pay policy if your numbers look slightly different.
What does the 65% Burnout Alert actually mean?
It compares what each premium hour pays after tax (your Real Net Hourly Yield) against what that hour pays before tax (its gross premium rate). If you're keeping less than 65% of the gross rate, taxes are eating more than a third of every extra hour — the point where a lot of workers find the missed sleep, missed games, and missed rest stop feeling worth it. It doesn't mean "never take OT." It means the routing matters more: aim those dollars at high-interest debt first, where every dollar also kills future interest.
Is the Overtime Efficiency Rating my credit score or something official?
No — it's a score this tool calculates for this paycheck only. It measures how efficiently your premium hours converted into spendable cash after estimated taxes. Higher means your OT is working hard for you; lower means bracket creep and withholding are taking a bigger cut, and it's worth looking at your W-4 or your routing split.
Tax figures on this page are estimates built from 2025 federal brackets, the standard deduction, FICA at 7.65%, and a typical effective state rate. They do not account for pre-tax deductions (401(k), health premiums), local taxes, garnishments, or your exact W-4 elections, and they are not tax advice. For decisions that matter, compare against your real pay stub or talk to a tax professional.