Quick answer: total each week separately, count overtime in each week on its own, then add the two weeks. 50 hours in week 1 and 30 hours in week 2 is 80 hours with 10 overtime hours, not zero.
Pay period is not the workweek
A biweekly pay period covers two workweeks, but federal overtime is counted per workweek, a fixed 168-hour period, and weeks may not be averaged. That is why this card shows a separate total and overtime figure for week 1 and week 2. A semi-monthly pay period (the 1st to the 15th) usually cuts a workweek in half; overtime is still counted on the full workweek.
Worked example
Week 1: five 10-hour days = 50 hours, 10 of them overtime. Week 2: three 10-hour days = 30 hours. At 18 an hour the period pays 70 regular hours x 18 = 1,260 plus 10 overtime hours x 27 = 270, so 1,530 gross. Averaged to 40 a week you would wrongly get 1,440.
Biweekly means 26 paydays in most years and 27 in some; see your dates in the pay period calendar. For a paper version, print the biweekly timesheet.
Keep one card per employee or job, send a card as a link, set custom overtime rules and handle split shifts: see everything the time card does.
If the two weeks run at different pay rates, the blended overtime calculator finds the correct overtime rate. For the paycheck itself, the hourly rate and wage calculator turns the rate into biweekly pay.
Overnight shifts on the two nights a year when clocks change are an hour shorter (March) or longer (November) than the clock times suggest; federal rules pay the hours actually worked, so adjust that one shift by hand.
Sources: DOL: Overtime pay; 29 CFR 516.2. Rules checked . Found a problem? Tell us.
Questions
Why is overtime counted per week on a biweekly card?
Federal overtime applies to each workweek on its own. Working 50 hours in week one and 30 in week two is 10 hours of overtime, even though the two weeks total 80.
How many hours is a full biweekly pay period?
80 hours for a full-time 40-hour schedule, which is 2,080 hours over 26 pay periods.
Can my employer average hours over two weeks?
Not for overtime under the FLSA. Some public-sector and hospital schedules have special rules (such as the 8 and 80 system for hospitals), which this calculator does not apply.