Time and a Half for $15.50 an Hour
$23.25per overtime hour · 12 overtime hours this week
| Hours | Count | Pay |
|---|---|---|
| Regular | 40 | $620 |
| Overtime | 12 | $279 |
| Total for the week | 52 | $899 |
| Blended hourly rate | — | $17.29 |
Worked every paid week of the year, that pattern comes to $46,748.
Time and a half for $15.50 an hour is $23.25 per overtime hour. Federal law owes overtime on hours past 40 in a workweek, not on long days, so a 52-hour week at $15.50 pays $899 — $620 at the regular rate plus $279 for 12 overtime hours.
Overtime rates for $15.50 an hour
| Rate | Per hour | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Regular 1x | $15.50 | Up to 40 hours in the workweek |
| Time and a half 1.5x | $23.25 | Every hour past 40, under federal law |
| Double time 2x | $31.00 | Not federal — some states and contracts only |
There is no federal double time. Where you see 2x — $31.00 an hour here — it comes from a state rule, a union agreement or an employment contract rather than from federal law.
States can and do add their own rules on top. California pays overtime past eight hours in a day and double time past twelve, plus a seventh-consecutive-day rule, which means the same 40-hour week can be worth noticeably more there than the federal minimum requires. Check the rules for the state the work is performed in, not the state the employer is based in.
Five overtime hours a week at $23.25 adds $6,045 over 52 paid weeks; ten hours a week adds $12,090. To earn an extra $10,000 in a year at this rate takes about 8.3 overtime hours a week, every week.
$15.50 an hour month to month
$15.50 an hour is about $2,686.67 a month before tax. That monthly figure is the year divided by twelve, not four weeks of pay — a distinction that matters when the rent is monthly and the wages are weekly.
Four weeks of pay at this rate is less than a month of pay, because a month averages closer to 4.33 weeks. Over a year the gap comes out even, but budgeting on four weekly cheques will leave two months a year short. The biweekly and semi-monthly rows above show the same effect from the other direction.
How $15.50 an hour compares
- It is 2.1x the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which is $17,160 more a year at the same hours.
- It is below the US median, at 50% of the median full-time wage.
- It is under Washington’s minimum wage of $17.13, the highest state floor in the country, so this rate would not be legal there.
Federal minimum wage $7.25, in effect since July 2009 (U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division). Median earnings from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Usual Weekly Earnings, second quarter 2026 — median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers. The hourly equivalent of $31.28 is that weekly figure over 40 hours, which is a derivation rather than a separately published median hourly wage. Highest state minimum: Washington, effective 1 January 2026.
How this is worked out
The default assumes 40 hours a week over 52 weeks, which is 2,080 paid hours a year. Yearly pay is the hourly rate multiplied by those hours; monthly is the year split twelve ways.
Biweekly and semi-monthly are not the same thing. Biweekly means every two weeks, which is 26 pay periods a year. Semi-monthly means twice a month, which is 24. That is why those two rows differ above, and why two months of the year carry a third biweekly cheque.
Every figure here is gross — before income tax, payroll tax and deductions.
Common questions
How much is $15.50 an hour a month?
$15.50 an hour is $2,686.67 a month before tax, at 40 hours a week. That is the yearly total of $32,240 divided by twelve, not four weekly cheques — a month averages about 4.33 weeks, so four weeks of pay at $620 comes to less than a month's share.
What is $15.50 an hour after taxes?
Every figure on this page is gross, before income tax, payroll tax and deductions. Take-home from $32,240 depends on your state, filing status, pre-tax deductions and local taxes, and those move the result by thousands — so no single after-tax number would be true for most readers. Social Security and Medicare alone take 7.65% of wages from an employee before any income tax applies.
Is $15.50 an hour a living wage?
That depends entirely on where you live and who depends on the income; $32,240 a year goes a long way in some metros and does not cover rent in others. What can be said precisely is that $15.50 an hour is 50% of the US median full-time wage.
How much is $15.50 an hour part-time?
At 30 hours a week $15.50 an hour is $24,180 a year, and at 20 hours it is $16,120. The hours matter more than the rate here: a schedule averaging 28 hours instead of the 40 an offer implies changes the annual figure by thousands.
Is $15.50 an hour more than $15 an hour?
$15.50 an hour is above $15, and comes to $32,240 a year against $31,200 for a $15 rate at the same hours.