Compare two job schedules beyond the hourly rate

Price both offers on one workweek, not one hour. The Department of Labor's overtime fact sheet requires covered employees to receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay, so an offer that routinely runs 44 hours is worth more per week than its posted rate suggests. The condition that flips the comparison: a salaried job can be exempt from that overtime entirely.

A workweek is 168 hours, and it does not average

The same fact sheet defines the workweek as a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, seven consecutive 24-hour periods, and states that averaging of hours over two or more weeks is not permitted. That matters when one offer swings. A 46-hour week followed by a 34-hour week pays six hours of overtime; a steady 40 and 40 pays none, for the same 80 hours.

Ask each employer which day the workweek starts. A roster that straddles the boundary moves hours between weeks and changes what is owed.

Saturday pay is a policy, not a rule

That overtime fact sheet also says the Act does not require overtime pay for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, or regular days of rest unless those hours push the week past 40. So a weekend premium is something an employer chose to offer, and it can be withdrawn. Ask whether it is in the written policy or in the manager's habit.

Salaried does not mean the same money

The DOL's exemption fact sheet requires an executive, administrative or professional employee to be paid on a salary basis at a rate not less than $684 per week to be exempt, with highly compensated employees at total annual compensation of $107,432 or more. Below that salary, the overtime rule still applies. Above it, the title and duties decide, and a 48-hour week pays the same as a 40-hour one.

Ask for the job title as it appears on the offer letter and whether the role is classified as exempt. That single word is worth more than the hourly comparison.

Price the parts of the day that are not paid

Two offers with the same paid hours can take very different amounts of your day. The DOL's hours worked fact sheet treats ordinary home to work travel as time that is not work time, counts an employee required to remain on call on the employer's premises as working while on call, and treats time spent traveling as part of the principal activity during the workday as work time. A job with a 20-minute unpaid handover at each end costs about 3.3 unpaid hours a week.

Breaks split the same way. That fact sheet says rest periods of short duration, usually 20 minutes or less, are customarily paid for as working time, while bona fide meal periods of typically 30 minutes or more generally need not be compensated. An unpaid 45-minute meal break on a 9-hour presence is 8.25 paid hours, not 9.

Example: $21.00 at 38 hours against $19.50 at 44 hours

Job A pays $21.00 an hour for a scheduled 38 hours: 38 x $21.00 = $798.00 a week, no overtime. Job B pays $19.50 for 44 hours: 40 x $19.50 = $780.00, plus 4 overtime hours at $29.25 = $117.00, for $897.00. Job B is $99.00 a week ahead on gross.

Now the driving. Job A is 8 miles round trip, five days: 40 miles a week. Job B is 26 miles round trip, five days: 130 miles a week. The IRS sets the business standard mileage rate at 76 cents a mile from July 1 to December 31, 2026, so the same 90-mile difference prices at $68.40 a week. Job B's real lead is $30.60, for six more hours away from home.

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What to write on the offer letter

Write four lines on each offer before you answer: scheduled hours, gross at those hours with overtime figured past 40, weekly miles at 76 cents, and the employee premium per paycheck. Then ask the one benefits question that changes a close call, because HealthCare.gov's minimum value standard treats a job-based plan as qualifying if it is designed to cover at least 60% of medical costs. Send it as a message: "Is this role classified as exempt, which day does the workweek start, and what is the employee premium per paycheck?" Then work through the benefits documents, price any extra shifts with the costs the shift creates, and if you would hold both jobs, test the gaps on one calendar.