Overtime Laws in Alabama
Alabama (AL) · Overtime laws · Last reviewed September 2026
Weekly overtime
1.5× after 40 hrs/week
Daily overtime
Not required
Double-time
Not state-mandated
The Federal Baseline (FLSA)
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, non-exempt employees in Alabama must be paid at least one and a half times their regular rate for every hour worked beyond 40 in a single workweek. A workweek is any fixed, repeating block of seven consecutive days, your business picks the start day, but once chosen it has to stay consistent.
Overtime is calculated per workweek, not per pay period. So even on a bi-weekly payroll, you still total each of the two workweeks separately when figuring out who crossed 40 hours.
Does Alabama Have Daily Overtime?
Alabama does not impose its own daily overtime rule. Overtime follows the federal standard: 1.5× after 40 hours in a workweek. There is no extra premium simply for working a long single day, unless an employment contract or union agreement says otherwise.
Who Is Exempt from Overtime?
Overtime protections cover non-exempt employees. Workers correctly classified as exempt, typically salaried executive, administrative, and professional roles that meet both a salary threshold and a duties test, generally are not owed overtime. Misclassifying an employee as exempt is one of the most common and expensive wage-and-hour mistakes, so review the duties test, not just the job title.
Independent contractors are not employees and are not covered by overtime rules, but the test for contractor status is strict, and getting it wrong creates back-pay liability.
An Overtime Example Using Alabama Numbers
Take someone earning the Alabama minimum of $7.25 an hour who works 46 hours in a single workweek. The first 40 hours are paid at $7.25, which is $290.00. The remaining 6 hours are overtime at one and a half times the regular rate, or $10.88 an hour, which is $65.28. Gross pay for the week is $355.28.
The phrase doing the work there is "regular rate", and it is not always the same as the hourly wage on the offer letter. Non-discretionary bonuses, shift differentials and most commissions have to be folded in before the premium is calculated, which means an employee on $7.25 plus a $50 attendance bonus is owed overtime on a higher figure than 10.88.
Alabama follows the federal weekly standard with no daily premium of its own, so a 12-hour Monday followed by three short days earns no overtime if the week finishes under 40 hours. That is legal, and it is also the arrangement employees most often query, so it is worth putting in writing.
The arithmetic is easy to get wrong by hand across a whole crew. The free overtime calculator linked below does it from a rate and a number of hours, and the time card calculator totals a full week including unpaid breaks.
Alabama Labor-Law Snapshot
In dollar terms, Alabama's minimum overtime rate works out to about $10.88/hour, time-and-a-half on the $7.25/hour (the federal floor) minimum. Alabama follows the federal weekly overtime rule with no daily-overtime premium of its own, and a final paycheck is generally due by the next regular payday (Alabama has no specific statutory deadline) when someone is let go.
For Alabama employers these rules interact with timekeeping: accurate, audit-logged hours drive overtime, final pay, and break records. Alabama sets no statewide meal-break requirement and does not mandate paid rest breaks; a final paycheck is due by the next regular payday when an employee resigns. Confirm current Alabama figures with the state labor office before relying on any single number.
What Alabama Employers Should Keep on File
Federal law requires employers to keep payroll records for at least three years, and the records used to calculate pay, such as time cards and work schedules, for at least two. Several states require longer. The practical standard is simple: if a former employee filed a claim tomorrow, could you evidence every hour you paid and every hour you did not?
The records that matter are the daily start and end times, the total hours for each workweek, the regular rate and any premium, all additions and deductions, and the pay period the payment covers. Keeping the underlying punches matters more than keeping the summary, because a total nobody can trace back is not evidence.
Where the record is missing or unreliable, the employee's reasonable recollection is generally accepted, and the employer carries the burden of disproving it. That is the single strongest argument for an automatic time clock over a paper sheet reconstructed at the end of the week.
How Alabama Compares with the States Next Door
Alabama borders 4 states, and stays at the federal floor here. Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee follow the federal 40-hour rule alone.
Minimum wage across the line: Florida $15.00, Georgia $7.25, Mississippi $7.25, Tennessee $7.25. Alabama is at $7.25.
If you employ people on both sides of the Alabama border, the stricter of the two states usually governs each worker, based on where the work is actually performed rather than where your business is registered.
Free calculators for this
Overtime Pay Calculator
Time-and-a-half and double-time from an hourly rate and the hours worked.
Time Card Calculator
Add up a week of clock-in and clock-out times, minus unpaid breaks, in decimal hours.
Work Hours Calculator
Hours worked between any two times, including shifts that run past midnight.
All of them run in your browser, with no signup. See all nine calculators.
Official Sources
More Alabama Guides
Overtime Laws in Other States
Alabama Overtime Laws: Frequently Asked Questions
Do you get overtime after 8 hours in Alabama?
No. Alabama follows the federal rule, so overtime applies after 40 hours in a workweek, not simply for a long single day.
How is overtime pay calculated in Alabama?
Overtime is 1.5× the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. Each workweek is totaled on its own, even on a bi-weekly payroll.
Who is exempt from overtime in Alabama?
Correctly classified salaried executive, administrative, and professional employees who meet the salary and duties tests are usually exempt. Job title alone doesn't make someone exempt.
Track Alabama Hours the Easy Way
Kloqk is a free time clock that handles overtime, breaks, and payroll-ready reports.
Start free