How the rules are checked and calculated

Where the state rules come from

For each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia we read the labor department or wage and hour division, the paid leave agency where there is one, the statute on the legislature's site, and the city or county page for local minimum wages. Each value is stored with the page address, a short quotation and the date read. Payroll vendors, law firm blogs and wage aggregators are never used as sources. When a point could not be confirmed on an official page, it is left out rather than guessed, and the file says so; 51 state files currently carry such a note, which keeps the related field empty or explained on the page.

Minimum wage

Each state file lists every general rate in force at some point in 2026, with its start date and the workers it covers (statewide, a region, small employers), and any rate already announced for 2027. The rate shown as "now" is the one in force on October 11, 2026, never below the federal $7.25 for covered employers. Earnings are straight time: rate times hours, 52 weeks a year, a month being a twelfth of the year. Tips, overtime, youth and training wages and industry rates are not included in that figure.

Overtime

The calculator takes a regular rate, a number of hours per day and days per week. It applies the state's daily threshold where there is one (Alaska, California, Colorado and Nevada), double time where the state requires it, the California seventh-day rule, and the weekly threshold, without counting the same hour twice. It then computes the same week under the federal rule alone (1.5 times the regular rate after 40 hours) and shows the larger result, since a worker covered by both laws receives the more favorable one. Exemptions are not decided by the calculator; the salary test uses the federal $684 a week or the state's higher level.

FMLA, full time and sick leave

The FMLA check applies the tests of 29 CFR 825.110: 12 months of service, 1,250 hours in the past 12 months, 50 employees within 75 miles, and a covered employer. Leave left is 12 workweeks (or 26 for military caregiver leave) minus the weeks entered. The full-time check uses the IRS definition (30 hours a week or 130 a month). Sick leave accrual multiplies the hours worked by the state rate and stops at the cap that applies to a typical employer; some states set lower caps for small employers, as the state pages explain.

Final paycheck and breaks

Where a state sets a fixed number of days after a dismissal, the calculator adds them to the last day of work; where the deadline is the next regular payday, it states the rule, since only you know your pay schedule. Breaks are counted for adults from the state rule: a meal period once a shift passes the state threshold, and a paid rest break per block of hours, with an extra one for a remaining major fraction.

What the calculators leave out

• union contracts and collective agreements, which can set better terms;
• industry wage orders, agricultural, domestic and public-sector rules, unless the state page says otherwise;
• tips, commissions and bonuses in the regular rate (enter your own regular rate);
• the duties test of the overtime exemptions;
• exact benefit amounts of paid family leave programs, which depend on your own wage history.

Federal sources