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Ontario puts two ceilings on how long you can be required to work: eight hours in a day and forty-eight in a week. Both are limits on hours, not on pay — and neither is the number where overtime starts. Getting those two ideas apart is most of what this page is for.
Last reviewed · maintained by Ihor Bezrukavnyk · how we calculate
48 hours
The most you can be required to work in a week without an agreement
44 hours
Where time and a half starts
Hours forty-five through forty-eight are perfectly lawful and still owe overtime. Above forty-eight the hours themselves need a written agreement — but signing one legalises the hours, it does not make them cheaper. Overtime is owed above forty-four either way, and no agreement can waive it.
| limit | the number | how it is exceeded |
|---|---|---|
| In a day | 8 hours | Written agreement naming a specific number of hours |
| In a work week | 48 hours | Written agreement naming a specific number of hours |
The daily limit is eight hours, or the length of your regular work day where the employer has established a longer one — a person on scheduled twelves is not over the limit at hour nine. An agreement has to name a number: a clause saying you will work whatever is needed does not satisfy the Act. It must be in writing or electronic form, and it is invalid unless the employer gave you the Director's information document on hours of work and overtime first and the agreement records that you received it. You can revoke it on two weeks' written notice.
Since April 2019 the weekly agreement no longer needs approval from the Director, and the Act sets no numeric ceiling above forty-eight. The only limit is the number written into the agreement itself.
An eating period is unpaid only where you do no work during it. Work through your break and it is working time — paid, and counted toward both the hours limits and the overtime threshold.
There is a narrow override, and it is narrower than employers often assume. It runs only so far as necessary to avoid serious interference with the ordinary working of the business, and only on four grounds:
Being short-staffed, being busy, or being up against a deadline is none of these. And even where the override applies, it suspends the hours ceilings only — the obligation to pay overtime is untouched.
If you regularly work more than three hours a day, are required to report, and then work less than three hours despite being available to work longer, you are owed three hours' pay. The Act pays the greater of two figures: what you actually earned for the time worked plus your regular rate for the rest of the three hours, or three hours at your regular rate. The difference matters when the time you did work was paid at a premium.
Managers and supervisors whose work is genuinely managerial, and people who do non-managerial work only on an irregular or exceptional basis, are outside the hours limits — as are construction employees, firefighters, IT professionals and specified agricultural workers. A wider exclusion sits behind that one: listed professionals and health practitioners, commercial fishers, real estate salespeople and non-route commission salespeople are outside Parts VII through XI altogether, which takes hours, overtime, holidays and vacation with it.
Forty-eight, unless you have signed an agreement to work more. The agreement has to be in writing, has to name a specific number of hours, and is invalid unless your employer first gave you the Director's information document on hours of work and overtime and the agreement records that you got it. Since April 2019 no approval from the Director is needed, and the Act sets no ceiling above forty-eight other than the number in your own agreement.
No. Overtime in Ontario starts at forty-four hours in a work week. Forty-eight is the maximum number of hours you can be required to work, which is a different question with a different answer. Hours forty-five to forty-eight are lawful without any agreement and are still paid at time and a half.
Only if you agreed in writing to a specific higher number, or if your employer has established a regular work day longer than eight hours — someone scheduled on twelve-hour shifts has a twelve-hour daily limit, not an eight-hour one. Outside those cases, the employer may not require or even permit the extra hours.
An agreement has to be genuine, and you can revoke it by giving two weeks' written notice. What no agreement can do is take away overtime pay: the Act does not allow contracting out of an employment standard, so hours above forty-four are paid at time and a half whatever the agreement says about the hours themselves.
Yes — at least thirty minutes, arranged so that you never work more than five hours in a row without one. You and your employer can agree to split it into two breaks adding up to thirty minutes within the same five hours. The break is unpaid only if you do no work during it; if you work through it, the time is paid and counts toward your hours.
Eleven consecutive hours free from work each day, and at least eight hours between shifts unless the two shifts together come to no more than thirteen hours. On top of that you are entitled to twenty-four consecutive hours off each work week, or forty-eight consecutive hours off in every two consecutive work weeks.
Every figure on this page traces to the statute or agency page above. If one is out of date, tell us — corrections ship the same week.
Overtally computes what you should be paid before taxes. It does not calculate take-home pay, withholding or deductions, and it is not legal advice — it is your own record and your own estimate.