How to calculate and track nanny overtime

Updated September 2026 · 8 min read

1. Confirm your nanny is non-exempt (almost always, they are)

The FLSA divides workers into exempt and non-exempt; non-exempt workers get overtime. A nanny employed directly by a family to care for children is treated as a non-exempt household employee, and the exemptions families sometimes hear about generally do not help:

• The "companionship services" exemption covers fellowship and protection for someone who can't care for themselves — an elderly or infirm person. Childcare is not companionship services, so a nanny isn't covered by it.
• The casual-babysitting exemption covers irregular, occasional babysitting. A regular nanny working a set schedule is not casual babysitting, however informally you arranged it.
• Paying a salary does not make anyone exempt. You may absolutely pay a nanny a fixed weekly amount — but if they work 45 hours, overtime is still owed on the 5. Exempt status depends on the duties test, and household childcare does not meet it.
• Calling them a contractor does not work either. When you control the schedule, the location and how the work is done, the IRS and DOL treat the nanny as your employee — see nanny taxes explained.

2. Fix your workweek — this is where most mistakes start

Overtime is calculated on a workweek: a fixed, recurring period of seven consecutive 24-hour days. You choose when it starts (Monday 12:00am is common; Sunday is equally fine), you write it down, and you keep it consistent. Then:

• Hours do not carry over between workweeks. 45 hours one week and 35 the next is 5 hours of overtime — not "80 hours, no overtime."
• There is no federal daily overtime for household employees. A 12-hour Tuesday in a 38-hour week triggers nothing federally (a few states differ — see below).
• Comp time is not legal for private employers. "She worked 44 this week, so she'll take a half-day next week" doesn't satisfy the obligation. The 4 hours must be paid at time-and-a-half.
• Paid time off doesn't count toward the 40. A week with 8 hours of paid holiday and 36 hours actually worked is 44 hours paid, but no overtime is due — overtime is based on hours worked.

3. Do the math

The standard case

Nanny at $25.00/hour, works 46 hours in the workweek.

That $1,225 is gross pay. Employment taxes sit on top of it — budget roughly 10% more for the employer's share, and use the nanny tax calculator for an estimate.

The two-rate case (weighted average)

If you pay different rates for different work — say $25/hour for childcare and $20/hour for evening housekeeping — the overtime premium is based on the regular rate, which is the weighted average across the week, not whichever rate happened to fall in hours 41–46.

Example: 30 hours at $25 ($750) + 15 hours at $20 ($300) = 45 hours, $1,050 in straight-time pay.

• Regular rate = $1,050 ÷ 45 = $23.33/hour
• Overtime premium = 5 hours × ($23.33 × 0.5) = 5 × $11.67 = $58.35
• Total = $1,050 + $58.35 = $1,108.35

Note the premium is the half-time portion, because the straight-time for all 45 hours is already in the $1,050. A guaranteed weekly bonus works the same way — it goes into the regular rate before you compute the premium. A genuinely discretionary gift does not.

What else counts as hours worked

• Travel during the workday — school runs, driving to activities — is working time.
• Short breaks (roughly under 20 minutes) count. A real, uninterrupted meal break of 30+ minutes where the nanny is relieved of duty generally doesn't — but "eating lunch while the baby naps and the monitor is on" is working time.
• On-call time at your home where the nanny isn't free to leave is generally working time, even if the children are asleep.

4. Live-in nannies and state rules

Federal law exempts live-in domestic employees from overtime — they must still be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked, but the 1.5× requirement doesn't apply federally. State law frequently does apply, and when state rules are more generous, the state rule wins. Two well-known examples:

• New York: household employees get 1.5× over 40 hours in a week; for live-in employees the threshold is 44 hours. New York also requires a day of rest each week.
• California: "personal attendants" covered by the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights get 1.5× over 9 hours in a day or 45 hours in a week. Nannies whose duties go well beyond personal attendant work can fall under the stricter general 8/40 rules.

Massachusetts, Maryland, Illinois, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Connecticut, Nevada, New Mexico, Virginia and others have domestic-worker or wage rules of their own, and more states add them each year. Check your state labor department before you settle on a schedule — this page is national, and your state is the one that will bill you.

5. Track it so you can prove it

Everything above is arithmetic. The part that actually goes wrong is the input: nobody remembers, six weeks later, whether that Thursday ran to 7pm or 8:15pm. The FLSA also expects the employer to keep accurate records of hours worked and wages paid — if there's ever a dispute, a contemporaneous log is what settles it, and its absence tends to settle it in the employee's favour.

A workable system does four things:

1. Logs hours the day they happen, on a phone, in seconds — not reconstructed on Sunday night.
2. Totals by workweek using your chosen week start, so 40 hours is visible before you blow past it.
3. Records every payment, including partial and cash ones, against a running balance.
4. Exports the year as a clean per-person record for your W-2, Schedule H or accountant.

That's precisely what Paypr is: set the rate once, log hours in a couple of taps, see weekly totals and an always-current balance, and export a CSV at year end. It isn't a payroll service — it doesn't withhold or file — but it's the record every payroll filing depends on. If you want the filing side too, see payroll service vs. hours tracker.

Related:
How much to pay a nanny · Nanny pay calculator (with overtime) · Nanny taxes explained · Tracking hours without a spreadsheet

Frequently asked

General information, not tax or legal advice. Household-employment thresholds, wage rules and overtime rules change annually and vary by state — confirm the current rules with the IRS, the US Department of Labor, your state labor agency, or a qualified professional.