The 40-hour line started as a jobs program
Sixty to eighty hours a week. That was normal in American factories, steel mills, and textile plants before the 1930s. No national law capped hours. No law required a premium for the extra time. Children worked alongside adults. Courts struck down state hour limits as unconstitutional. Labor unions pushed for an eight-hour day, but for decades workers had no enforceable protection against exhaustion.
The Great Depression broke that pattern. Unemployment hit 25 percent by 1933. Employers stretched existing staff across longer shifts instead of hiring. One person working 80 hours meant one less job for somebody else. The Roosevelt administration saw a fix: limit hours and make long shifts expensive enough that hiring made more sense.
The FLSA draws a line
The Fair Labor Standards Act became law on June 25, 1938, and took effect October 24, 1938. It did two things that reshaped American pay: set a national minimum wage and required overtime pay. It also restricted child labor.
The overtime rule was direct. For every hour beyond 40 in a workweek, a non-exempt employee gets one and a half times their standard rate. The 40-hour threshold was a compromise between factions pushing for 30 and those holding out for 48. Congress wanted to discourage excessive hours and spread work across more people.
Coverage was not universal. The law reached employees engaged in interstate commerce or producing goods for it. That left many outside its protection, but the foundation was laid.
Amendments that widened the net
Amendments in 1961 extended the FLSA to workers in enterprises engaged in interstate commerce, not just those directly shipping goods across state lines.
The 1966 amendments pulled in public schools, hospitals, nursing homes, laundries, and construction. Millions gained overtime rights overnight.
The 1974 amendments reached most national, state, and local government employees. Each expansion faced opposition. Employers warned of crushing compliance costs. Supporters argued the law’s original purpose, protecting people from overwork, demanded updating as the economy changed.
The Supreme Court settles state and local coverage
In 1985, Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority decided whether state and local governments had to follow FLSA overtime rules. The Supreme Court said yes. The ruling overturned an earlier decision that had shielded states. Public transit operators, municipal staff, and state employees all gained national overtime protections. The Court held that the Commerce Clause gave Congress authority to regulate state employment when interstate commerce was affected.
The salary threshold fights: 2004 through 2024
The FLSA exempts certain white-collar employees from overtime: executives, administrators, professionals, and outside salespeople. To qualify as exempt, an employee must pass three tests. Salary basis. Salary level. Duties. The salary level test has been a political football for two decades.
In 2004, the Department of Labor overhauled the regulations under President George W. Bush. The rules updated the salary cutoff and clarified the duties tests.
The Obama administration attempted a sharp increase in 2016. A federal court in Texas blocked the rule before it took effect, ruling the DOL had exceeded its authority.
The Trump administration issued its own rule in 2019. It raised the cutoff to $35,568 per year, effective January 1, 2020. No automatic indexing was included.
In 2024, the DOL under President Biden raised the cutoff to $43,888 per year ($844 per week) as of July 1, 2024. A second increase to $58,656 per year was scheduled for January 1, 2025. Federal courts again blocked full implementation. Check the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division website for the current threshold before relying on any figure.
California rewrites the daily rule
National law sets a floor. States can go further. California adopted daily overtime in 1999 through AB 60. The rule requires time and a half for hours worked beyond 8 in a single day, on top of the weekly 40-hour cutoff.
A worker who logs 10 hours on Tuesday and 6 on Thursday earns two hours of overtime at time and a half, even if the week totals under 40. Hours beyond 12 in a day trigger double time. A seventh consecutive day worked brings time and a half for the first 8 hours and double time after that.
Alaska also requires daily overtime past 8 hours. Nevada requires it for employees earning below a wage level set annually; a 2024 ballot measure altered coverage for certain staff. Check the Nevada Labor Commissioner’s site for the current rule. Colorado mandates overtime past 12 hours in a day. Oregon requires it past 10 hours in manufacturing establishments. Each state’s labor department publishes the current thresholds.
The 32-hour proposal
Progressive lawmakers have proposed lowering the national overtime trigger from 40 hours to 32 hours per week. California and Massachusetts have seen bills. The COVID-19 pandemic, remote work, and automation have fueled the conversation. A 32-hour threshold would not eliminate overtime pay. It would make it kick in sooner. No such law has passed.
Worked examples at time and a half
The standard national rate for hours past 40 in a week is one and a half times the employee’s usual hourly rate. The tables below show gross pay before taxes and deductions. These are arithmetic illustrations only. Overtime thresholds and exemptions are set by law. Check the U.S. Department of Labor and your state labor department for the rules that apply to your situation.
At $15 an hour
| Total hours | Straight-time hours | OT hours | Straight-time pay | OT pay ($22.50/hr) | Gross pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 40 | 0 | $600.00 | $0.00 | $600.00 |
| 45 | 40 | 5 | $600.00 | $112.50 | $712.50 |
| 50 | 40 | 10 | $600.00 | $225.00 | $825.00 |
| 60 | 40 | 20 | $600.00 | $450.00 | $1,050.00 |
At $20 an hour
| Total hours | Straight-time hours | OT hours | Straight-time pay | OT pay ($30.00/hr) | Gross pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 40 | 0 | $800.00 | $0.00 | $800.00 |
| 45 | 40 | 5 | $800.00 | $150.00 | $950.00 |
| 50 | 40 | 10 | $800.00 | $300.00 | $1,100.00 |
| 60 | 40 | 20 | $800.00 | $600.00 | $1,400.00 |
At $25 an hour
| Total hours | Straight-time hours | OT hours | Straight-time pay | OT pay ($37.50/hr) | Gross pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 40 | 0 | $1,000.00 | $0.00 | $1,000.00 |
| 45 | 40 | 5 | $1,000.00 | $187.50 | $1,187.50 |
| 50 | 40 | 10 | $1,000.00 | $375.00 | $1,375.00 |
| 60 | 40 | 20 | $1,000.00 | $750.00 | $1,750.00 |
At $35 an hour
| Total hours | Straight-time hours | OT hours | Straight-time pay | OT pay ($52.50/hr) | Gross pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 40 | 0 | $1,400.00 | $0.00 | $1,400.00 |
| 45 | 40 | 5 | $1,400.00 | $262.50 | $1,662.50 |
| 50 | 40 | 10 | $1,400.00 | $525.00 | $1,925.00 |
| 60 | 40 | 20 | $1,400.00 | $1,050.00 | $2,450.00 |
Where the line sits now
The 40-hour workweek is so embedded that it is easy to forget it is a legal standard, not a fact of nature. The salary cutoff remains contested in court. Proposals for a 32-hour trigger would redraw the map entirely.
The core principle has not changed since 1938: if an employer wants your time beyond the standard workweek, they pay a premium for it. Know what threshold applies in your state. Check the U.S. Department of Labor and your state labor department for the current numbers. The law moves.