What is the same in every state
The Fair Labor Standards Act sets one and a half times your regular rate for hours over forty in a workweek, and it applies in all fifty. A state may require more — California's daily rule, Pennsylvania's narrower exemptions — but no state may require less, and no employer may contract out of it. A workweek is a fixed, recurring 168-hour period your employer defines; it does not have to match the calendar week, and hours cannot be averaged across two of them to keep you under the threshold.
Which states have daily overtime
Four. California, Alaska, Nevada and Colorado each pay a premium once a single day passes a threshold, independent of the weekly total. California is the strictest — time and a half over eight hours, double time over twelve, plus the seventh-day rule — and Colorado's threshold is twelve hours rather than eight. Everywhere else, a fourteen-hour Tuesday inside a thirty-eight-hour week produces no overtime at all. That is correct, and it surprises almost everyone.
Where a state has both rules, they must not pay for the same hour twice. Five ten-hour days in California is ten overtime hours, not twenty: the daily rule has already claimed them, so the weekly threshold has nothing left to catch.
The field that varies most: your last paycheck
This is where the spread is widest, and it is the field with the most money attached to a wrong answer. California owes a discharged employee every penny the same day, with a penalty of up to thirty days' wages if the employer is late. Texas gives an employer six calendar days after a discharge — but no deadline at all beyond the next payday if you resigned. Florida has no state deadline in either direction. New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Washington all land on some version of "your next regular payday", but they get there through different statutes with different remedies attached.
If you are counting days, read your own state's page rather than a table. The table is a map, not the territory.
Why eight states and not fifty
Because forty-two more pages whose entire content is "this state has no daily overtime rule" would not help anybody. These eight are the ones where there is genuinely something to say: California because nearly every rule is different, Texas and New York because their pay deadlines are unusual, Washington because of its breaks and its minimum wage, Ohio because its thresholds are indexed and its final-pay position is unclear, Florida because so little state law exists, and Illinois and Pennsylvania because their state rules reach further than the federal ones in ways people do not expect.
If your state is not here: the federal weekly rule is almost certainly your overtime answer, but pay frequency, final paycheck deadlines and breaks vary everywhere. Your state labour agency will tell you for free, and the US Department of Labor keeps a directory of them.
Common questions
Which states have daily overtime?
Four: California, Alaska, Nevada and Colorado. Everywhere else overtime is counted across the workweek only, so a single long day is not overtime by itself no matter how long it was.
Which state has a seventh consecutive day rule?
California, and only California. On the seventh consecutive day worked in a workweek the first eight hours are paid at time and a half and everything beyond eight at double time, even if the week totals under forty hours.
Does every state have to pay overtime after 40 hours?
Yes, through federal law. The Fair Labor Standards Act sets time and a half over forty hours in a workweek and applies in every state. States can require more than that; they cannot require less.
Which state pays a final paycheck fastest?
California. A discharged employee is owed all wages immediately at the time of termination, and an employee who quits with 72 hours of notice is owed them on the last day. Texas is the other notable case: six calendar days if you are fired, but only the next regular payday if you quit.
Why are only eight states here?
Because forty-two more pages saying "this state has no daily overtime rule" would be filler. These eight cover the states where the answer is genuinely different, plus the largest by population. If your state is not here, the federal rule is almost certainly the whole story on overtime — but pay frequency, final paycheck deadlines and breaks do vary, so check your state labour agency.
How these pages are kept honest
Every field on every state page carries the statute it came from and the date it was last read against a primary source — the state's own code, register or labour department, not a summary of one. Where a rule is genuinely unsettled, the page says so and explains why rather than picking whichever answer reads more confidently. Two are flagged today: Ohio has no statute setting a final-paycheck deadline, and New York's appellate courts disagree about whether a manual worker paid late but in full can sue over the timing.
None of this is legal advice. It is published law, cited so you can check it, and every page ends with the free agency that answers questions for your state.