Overtime in Pennsylvania
Daily overtime
Pennsylvania has no daily overtime threshold. Overtime is counted weekly. Only California, Alaska, Nevada and Colorado count it by the day.
Weekly overtime
The Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act requires overtime at not less than one and a half times the regular rate for hours over forty in a workweek. The threshold matches federal law, but Pennsylvania is one of the states where the state rule reaches further than the federal one in two ways worth knowing. Pennsylvania does not recognise the federal "highly compensated employee" shortcut to exempt status, so a well-paid worker who is exempt federally may still be owed overtime here. And the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held in 2019 that the fluctuating-workweek method — paying a salaried non-exempt employee an extra half the regular rate for overtime hours instead of one and a half — is not permitted under state law.
The seventh consecutive day
Pennsylvania has no seventh-day premium and no general day-of-rest requirement for adult private-sector employees.
How often you must be paid
Pennsylvania does not set a minimum number of paydays a month. What it requires is that paydays be designated in advance, and that wages earned in a pay period be paid within the number of days set out in a written employment contract, or — if the contract says nothing — within the standard time lapse customary in the trade, or within fifteen days of the end of the pay period, whichever applies. Union dues deducted and agreed fringe benefits must be remitted within ten days of when they are due.
When your last paycheck is due
This is the question people search for most, and in several states the answer depends on whether you left or were let go. In Pennsylvania:
- If you were fired or laid off: By the next regular payday on which the wages would otherwise have been due.
- If you quit: By the next regular payday on which the wages would otherwise have been due.
Pennsylvania uses one deadline for both routes out. Whenever an employer separates an employee from the payroll, or an employee quits or resigns, the wages earned become due and payable no later than the next regular payday on which they would otherwise have been due. If you ask for it, the employer must send the payment by certified mail.
Meal and rest breaks
Pennsylvania requires no meal period for employees aged eighteen and over. Minors under eighteen are entitled to a thirty-minute break after five consecutive hours of work under the state’s child labour law.
No rest breaks are required for adults. Federal rules still decide whether a break you are given is paid: a break of under twenty minutes is paid working time, and a meal period of thirty minutes or more may be unpaid only if you are completely relieved of duty for all of it.
The Pennsylvania minimum wage
The Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act still names $7.15 an hour on its face, a figure set in 2007, but the same section provides that the state rate rises whenever the federal rate does. The federal rate went to $7.25 in July 2009 and has not moved since, so $7.25 is the operative Pennsylvania minimum. Every state bordering Pennsylvania except West Virginia and Ohio’s small-employer tier now pays more.
Figure checked 26 July 2026, effective 24 July 2009. Minimum wages move on a schedule and local ordinances move on their own — if you are reading this well after that date, check the agency link below before relying on the number.
If you have not been paid
The Bureau of Labor Law Compliance takes complaints under the Wage Payment and Collection Law — wages not paid as agreed, a last cheque not handed over, payment that is persistently late, and improper deductions such as charging you for equipment. Minimum wage and overtime complaints go to the same bureau on a separate form.
Deadline: Three years is the limitations period for a Wage Payment and Collection Law claim in court.
PA Department of Labor & Industry, Bureau of Labor Law Compliance
What this page does not cover
- Whether the rules apply to you at all. Overtime and break rules apply to non-exempt employees. If you are genuinely exempt, or an independent contractor, most of this page is not about you — and misclassification is common enough that being called exempt is not the same as being exempt.
- Local ordinances. Cities and counties set their own minimum wages, paid sick leave and, in some places, scheduling rules. Only the state-level position is described here.
- Industry-specific rules. Agriculture, transport, health care, public employment and several other sectors carry their own wage orders and exemptions that override the general position.
- Your contract or union agreement, which can promise more than the law requires — never less.
- This is not legal advice. It is a cited summary of published law, written to be checked. The agency above answers questions for free.
Common questions
Does Pennsylvania have daily overtime?
No. Pennsylvania counts overtime weekly, over forty hours in a workweek. Only California, Alaska, Nevada and Colorado have a daily threshold.
When is my final paycheck due in Pennsylvania?
By the next regular payday on which those wages would otherwise have been due, whether you quit or were separated. If you ask, the employer must send it by certified mail.
I am salaried and my employer pays overtime at half my hourly rate. Is that allowed in Pennsylvania?
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held in 2019 that the fluctuating-workweek method — paying an extra half the regular rate rather than one and a half times it — does not satisfy the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act. That is stricter than the federal rule, so a method that is lawful under the FLSA may still be unlawful here.
Does my employer have to give me a lunch break in Pennsylvania?
Not if you are eighteen or over. Pennsylvania requires no meal or rest breaks for adults. Minors under eighteen are entitled to thirty minutes after five consecutive hours.
What is the minimum wage in Pennsylvania in 2026?
Seven dollars twenty-five an hour, the federal rate. Pennsylvania’s own statute names $7.15 but rises automatically with the federal minimum, which last moved in July 2009.