Overtime Value Calculator — What Is an Hour of Overtime Actually Worth After Tax?

Overtime looks like a premium. The 1.5x or 2x headline rate sounds like a meaningful boost. But after marginal income taxes, the actual take-home rate is often much closer to your regular pay than you'd expect — and when you factor in the opportunity cost of time (childcare, commuting, meals), it can be negative. The Overtime Value Calculator computes the exact after-tax value of every overtime hour you work. It takes your base salary, calculates your real marginal tax rate on overtime income (federal + state), applies your specific overtime multiplier (1.5x, 2x, or shift differential), and shows you what you actually keep per hour after the government takes its share. Then it layers in the time costs — commute, childcare, meal expenses — that are often invisible in the headline rate but are real costs of the extra hour. The result: your true overtime rate. Not the gross rate your employer pays — the net rate that actually shows up in your life. The calculator also builds a break-even analysis: how many overtime hours do you need to reach a specific financial goal? And it compares three scenarios — working overtime, skipping overtime, and a side hustle — to help you see whether the extra hours at work are actually the most efficient path to your financial target.