New Jersey Overtime Pay Laws & Calculator

The rules

Source: 29 U.S.C. § 207 (federal FLSA)

• Overtime applies after 40 hours in a single workweek, paid at 1.5x your regular hourly rate.
• New Jersey has no separate state-law daily-overtime or double-time requirement -- only the weekly threshold above applies.

Worked example

Take a non-exempt hourly employee in New Jersey earning $20.00/hour who works 45 hours in one workweek (nine hours a day, Monday through Friday). Applying New Jersey's rules above:

Use the full calculator to plug in your own rate, hours, and pay period — including estimated federal and New Jersey tax withholding.

New Jersey minimum wage and exempt-salary rules

Minimum wage

$15.92/hour for most employees, effective January 1, 2026. Seasonal and small-employer (fewer than 6 employees) rates are lower ($15.23/hour) as part of a scheduled phase-in through 2028, and agricultural workers have their own rate ($14.20/hour). (New Jersey Business Action Center)

Tipped employees

Employers using a tip credit must pay at least $6.05/hour in cash wages (a $9.87/hour maximum tip credit). If cash wages plus tips don't reach $15.92/hour for a given hour, the employer must make up the difference. (New Jersey Business Action Center)

Exempt (salaried) employee salary threshold

New Jersey uses the federal salary threshold ($684/week, $35,568/year) for the executive, administrative, and professional exemptions -- it hasn't set its own higher figure. (NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development)

Common mistake: New Jersey follows the federal 40-hour weekly standard with no separate daily-overtime rule, so the most common mistake here is the general biweekly one: averaging hours across a two-week pay period instead of calculating overtime for each workweek separately. See the biweekly overtime calculator below.

Example: biweekly confusion in New Jersey

Same hourly rate ($20.00/hour), 35 hours in week 1 and 45 hours in week 2 — 80 hours total either way:

Week 2 still owes 5 overtime hours even though the two-week total is a plain 80 hours — overtime in New Jersey is calculated per workweek, not by averaging the pay period. See the biweekly overtime calculator for more examples.

Example: 3x12 vs. 4x12 schedules in New Jersey

Two common 12-hour-shift schedules, same $20.00/hour rate:

Want to compare your own rate, days, and shift differential? Use the schedule comparison tool.

New Jersey-specific FAQ

Is overtime taxed differently in New Jersey?

No -- overtime pay isn't taxed at a different rate than your regular wages. It's simply added to your gross pay for that period and withheld the same way as any other pay. New Jersey taxes wage income on a bracketed schedule topping out at 10.75% (Tax Foundation, 2026 State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets); overtime pay is withheld the same as any other wages, based on your total taxable pay for the period.

Who this applies to

• This estimate assumes a non-exempt hourly employee. Executive, administrative, professional, and certain other roles may be exempt from overtime entirely under state and federal law.

This is an estimate for general informational purposes only, not legal, tax, or payroll advice. For your specific situation, consult your employer's payroll department, a licensed tax professional, or New Jersey's labor department.