Double the Wage for Overtime Act of 2026

This bill would raise the overtime pay rate under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 from one and one-half times an employee's regular pay rate to two times that rate. It does this by amending several sections of the Act—Section 7 and multiple provisions of Section 13—replacing "one and one-half" with "two" wherever the overtime multiplier appears.

The change would affect employers and non-exempt employees covered by federal overtime rules: workers who put in overtime hours would be entitled to double pay for those hours instead of the current time-and-a-half, while employers would bear the increased labor cost. The bill does not alter which employees are exempt or non-exempt, or how overtime eligibility is determined—it only changes the pay multiplier itself.

The bill was introduced in the Senate on August 5, 2026, by Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), with four Democratic cosponsors, and was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. It has not yet been voted on by the committee or the full Senate. If eventually enacted, the changes would take effect 180 days after enactment. As an introduced bill referred to committee, it faces the standard multi-step legislative process—committee consideration, potential markup, floor votes in both chambers, and presidential signature—before becoming law.

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