Guides
The calculators answer "how much." These answer "why," and "does this even apply to me" - the questions where getting the rule wrong costs more than getting the arithmetic wrong.
How these are written
Pay and tax rules get copied between websites far more often than they get checked. A figure gets published, a court strikes it down, and the number keeps circulating for years because nobody went back to the source. Every guide here works the other way round: each figure is traced to the agency or court that actually issued it, and each page carries a date showing when that was last confirmed.
Two dates appear on every guide and they mean different things. Last updated is when the page was edited. Figures last verified is when the underlying rules were re-checked against their sources - and that date does not move unless the source was genuinely re-opened. Written and maintained by Jefferson Almeida.
All guides
Salaried Overtime Eligibility
Being salaried does not make you exempt. The three-part test, the 2026 federal and state salary thresholds, and the figures most published tables get wrong.
Why Your Paycheck Changed
Same salary, different take-home. The four timing rules that move the number, traced across all 26 checks of a single year.
No Tax on Tips: Who Qualifies
All 71 occupations on Treasury's list, searchable, with the official definitions - and the voluntariness test that decides whether a payment is a tip or a service charge.
What Counts Toward Overtime Pay
Overtime is 1.5× the regular rate, not the hourly wage. The eight things the statute leaves out, and what one bonus left out of the rate costs across a crew.
Origination Fees and APR
Why a 5% fee on a 12% loan makes the APR 14.283%, not 13% - the method step by step, and what paying the loan off early does to the real cost.
Is Overtime Taxed More?
No - but overtime checks often lose more to withholding. Why that happens, what the 2025-2028 deduction covers, and one year of overtime traced to the tax bill.
Looking for a calculator instead?
If you already know the rule and just need the number, the overtime calculator works out what hours past 40 are worth, and the paycheck calculator shows what actually lands in your account after federal tax, state tax and FICA. The full list of tools covers loans, debt payoff, retirement and sales tax.