If an employee has worked forty hours or less, the pay is just the number of hours worked multiplied with the hourly wage. If he has worked more than forty hours, he qualifies for overtime pay, which is his regular 40-hour pay plus 1.5 times his hourly wage times the overtime hours.

For example, if Cassie is paid ten dollars an hour and works only twenty hours, then her pay is two hundred dollars (or ten dollars/hour times twenty hours).

But if Ben is paid eight dollars an hour and works for fifty hours, his pay is three hundred sixty dollars regular pay (eight dollars/hour times forty hours) PLUS one hundred twenty dollars for overtime pay (1.5 times eight dollars/hour times ten hours overtime), making his total pay four hundred and forty dollars.