Seventh-Day Overtime: Which States Have It

What counts as the “seventh day”

Both states count days inside one workweek, not any seven calendar days in a row.

• A workweek is a fixed, recurring period of seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It can start on any day and at any hour, and it stays fixed once set.
• California’s wage order defines its workweek as any seven consecutive days, starting the same calendar day each week. The premium is for the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek.
• Kentucky’s statute applies when an employer permits an employee to work seven days in one workweek. It defines the workweek as a calendar week or another fixed seven-day period the employer adopts permanently.

In practice, the seventh-day rule applies only when every day of one workweek has work in it. Seven days in a row that straddle two workweeks are not seven days in one workweek. Say the workweek starts Sunday and you work six-hour shifts from a Wednesday through the following Tuesday. Week one holds four days (24:00) and week two holds three (18:00). Neither week has a seventh day, and neither has overtime.

That is why the workweek start matters. Ask your employer which day and hour it begins. The site’s calculator applies a seventh-day rule only when all seven days of one workweek show time worked.

California: 1.5× for the first 8 hours, 2× after

On the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek, California pays:

• 1.5 times the regular rate for the first 8 hours, and
• 2 times the regular rate for every hour over 8.

The rule does not depend on the week passing 40 hours. Seven short shifts still make the seventh day a premium day. California’s Labor Code 556 does exempt weeks of no more than 30 hours with no day over 6 hours, but only from the day-of-rest sections (551 and 552), as the California Supreme Court explained in Mendoza v. Nordstrom (2017); it does not remove seventh-day overtime pay. California’s daily rules (over 8 hours at 1.5×, over 12 at 2×) and weekly rule (over 40 at 1.5×) apply on the other days. An hour already paid at a premium is not counted again toward the 40.

Kentucky: 1.5× when the week is over 40 hours

Kentucky pays time and a half for the hours worked on the seventh day of a workweek in which the employee worked all seven days. The statute then makes an exception. The U.S. Department of Labor summarizes it this way: “The 7th day overtime law does not apply when the employee is not permitted to work over 40 hours total in the workweek.”

The site reads that as the week totals more than 40 hours worked, which follows the statute’s wording and the federal summary. No Kentucky Labor Cabinet guidance on how to measure it was found. When the condition is met, all hours on the seventh day are at 1.5×. Kentucky has no double time.

Kentucky’s seventh-day statute has its own exceptions. They include supervisors whose duties are mainly directing others, stenographers, bookkeepers and technical assistants of licensed professions, and certain transportation workers.

Connecticut restaurants: a premium on the minimum rate

Connecticut’s Mandatory Order No. 8, for restaurant and hotel restaurant occupations, requires at least 1.5 times the minimum rate for all time worked on the seventh consecutive day. That is a floor based on the minimum wage, not on your own rate. The state table lists it, but the calculator does not apply it. Whether other Connecticut wage orders carry a similar rule was not researched.

Worked examples at $24.50 an hour

All three weeks start on Sunday, so Saturday is the seventh day.

Week A: seven 5-hour shifts, 35:00 (35.00 hours). Every day is 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

Week B: six 6-hour shifts, then a 10-hour Saturday, 46:00 (46.00 hours). Sunday to Friday are 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Saturday is 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM with a 30-minute unpaid meal: 10:00 (10.00 hours).

In Week B the state rule pays more than the federal one, so the state result is used. The weekly count adds only the 36:00 of straight time from Sunday to Friday, so no hour is paid twice. The FLSA-required part is still the 6:00 over 40, which matters for the 2025–2028 federal overtime deduction: only the premium on that FLSA-required overtime counts, only for federal income tax, and only up to a yearly cap.

Week C: the site’s standard week plus a Sunday shift, 53:28 (53.47 hours). The standard week is Monday 8:06, Tuesday 10:15, Wednesday 7:40, Thursday 10:30, Friday 7:57 and Saturday 4:30. Add a Sunday from 9:00 AM to 1:30 PM (4:30). The federal rule gives 13:28 (13.47 hours) of overtime and $1,474.90 gross. California and Kentucky give the same total. In both, Saturday’s 4:30 becomes seventh-day overtime instead of weekly overtime. When a week is already far past 40 hours, the seventh-day rule changes the label on the hours, not the pay.

Bottom line

Seventh-day overtime is a state rule in California and Kentucky only, plus Connecticut’s restaurant floor. It turns on one fact you can check: whether all seven days of one fixed workweek have work in them. If a seven-day week on your stub shows no premium, first ask your employer when the workweek starts and which state rule they applied. The state labor department named in the overtime laws by state table can answer questions the employer can’t. To check a week yourself, enter it in the overtime calculator. The daily overtime guide covers California’s other daily rules.