Overtime rules in English-speaking countries: who has to pay extra and who doesn’t

“Time and a half” sounds universal. It isn’t. Whether overtime has to be paid at a higher rate, and from which hour, depends heavily on the country, and sometimes on the state or province. Getting it wrong works in both directions: some employers underpay, others pay premiums nobody required and then can’t take them back.

The short version

Country	Overtime premium in law?	Key numbers
United States	Yes, for non-exempt employees	At least 1.5× the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek
California	Yes, daily and weekly	1.5× after 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week; 2× after 12 hours in a day
Canada (federal)	Yes	1.5× after 8 hours a day or 40 a week; provinces differ
United Kingdom	No	Contract decides; average pay must not fall below minimum wage; 48-hour average week unless the worker opts out
Australia	Through awards and agreements	Maximum 38 hours a week plus reasonable additional hours (NES)
Ireland	No	Contract decides; 48-hour average week, usually over 4 months
New Zealand	No	Employment agreement decides; minimum wage for every hour worked

United States: the 40-hour workweek

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, non-exempt employees must be paid at least one and a half times their regular rate for every hour over 40 in a workweek. A workweek is a fixed, recurring period of 168 hours (seven consecutive 24-hour periods) that you choose, and each workweek stands on its own: you can’t average two weeks of 35 and 45 hours to avoid paying overtime on the second.

Three details catch people out:

• Federal law has no daily overtime. A 12-hour day inside a 40-hour week owes no federal premium. Some states, California being the best known, do have daily overtime.
• “Regular rate” isn’t always the hourly rate. Non-discretionary bonuses, such as attendance or production bonuses, generally have to be included when you work out the overtime rate.
• A salary doesn’t make someone exempt. To be exempt, an employee has to meet duties tests and a minimum salary level set by the Department of Labor. A salaried shift supervisor who mostly does the same work as their team may well be owed overtime.

Private employers also can’t give “comp time” (time off later) instead of paying federal overtime. That option exists for some public sector employers, not for a café or a cleaning company.

Canada: federal and provincial rules

For federally regulated employers, the Canada Labour Code sets standard hours of 8 a day and 40 a week, with overtime at 1.5 times the regular wage beyond that. Since 2019 an employee can agree in writing to take time off instead, at 1.5 hours of paid leave for every overtime hour.

Most employers, though, are under provincial law, and the thresholds move. Ontario pays overtime after 44 hours in a week. Alberta uses 8 hours a day or 44 a week, whichever gives the employee more overtime. Before you set up payroll, read the employment standards act of the province where people actually work.

United Kingdom: no legal premium, but real limits

There’s no legal right to be paid extra for overtime in the UK. What the employee gets for extra hours, if anything, is whatever the contract says. Two rules still bite:

• Minimum wage. Average pay across all the hours someone works in a pay period, overtime included, can’t fall below the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage. Salaried staff working long weeks are where this goes wrong.
• The 48-hour week. Workers can’t be made to work more than 48 hours a week on average, normally over 17 weeks, unless they’ve chosen to opt out in writing. Workers under 18 can’t opt out and are limited to 8 hours a day and 40 a week.

Australia, Ireland and New Zealand

Australia

The National Employment Standards cap a full-time week at 38 hours plus “reasonable additional hours”. Whether extra hours are reasonable depends on things like the employee’s health and safety, their personal circumstances, the notice given and the pay they receive. The overtime rates themselves come from the modern award or enterprise agreement that covers the employee, and they often apply after a set number of hours in a day as well as in a week. Find the award first; that’s where the numbers are.

Ireland

Irish law doesn’t give a general right to overtime pay. It depends on the contract or a collective agreement. What the law does limit is time: an average of 48 hours a week, usually calculated over four months, under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997.

New Zealand

New Zealand has no statutory overtime rate either. Overtime terms belong in the employment agreement, and every hour worked must be paid at least at the minimum wage, which matters when someone on a fixed salary works a lot of extra hours.

One week, two answers: a worked example

Same employee, same week, paid $20 an hour: four days of 9 hours and one of 6 hours. That’s 42 hours.

In California the daily rule gives 4 overtime hours. The remaining 38 regular hours don’t pass 40, so there’s no extra weekly overtime on top. The difference is small for one week. Over a year, across a team, it isn’t.

Whatever the rate, the hours have to be on record

Every one of these systems depends on the same thing: knowing exactly how many hours each person worked, on which day. Without a reliable record you can’t calculate overtime correctly, you can’t prove you stayed under the weekly limits, and you can’t defend yourself if someone claims hours you never saw.

In practice that means setting each person’s normal hours, recording real clock-ins, and comparing the two every day rather than once a month when payroll is due. That’s also the moment to decide, case by case and within what your country allows, whether extra hours are paid or taken as time off.

Frequently asked questions

Information current as of 27 October 2026. Rules change, and states, provinces and industries often add their own, so use this as a guide rather than legal advice.

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