Canada has no national overtime rule. Every province and territory writes its own, and they sit far enough apart that the same 46-hour week is worth different money on either side of a border. Ontario pays time and a half only after 44 hours in a week and has no daily threshold at all, so a 13-hour Tuesday inside a short week owes nothing extra. British Columbia runs the opposite shape: overtime after 8 hours in a day, double time after 12. And in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador the overtime rate is not a multiple of your own rate at all — the statute sets it as one and a half times the provincial minimum wage.
| province or territory | overtime after | what is different here | source |
|---|---|---|---|
AlbertaAB holiday pay → | 8h/day · 44h/week | The greater of the daily and weekly calculations | Employment Standards Code, s. 21 |
| holiday pay → | 8h/day · 40h/week | Double time past 12 hours in a day | Employment Standards Act, s. 40 |
ManitobaMB holiday pay → | 8h/day · 40h/week | Daily overtime hours are not counted again weekly | Employment Standards Code, s. 17 |
| holiday pay → | 44h/week | Paid at 1.5× the minimum wage, not your own rate | Employment Standards Act, s. 16 |
| holiday pay → | 40h/week | Paid at 1.5× the minimum wage, not your own rate | Labour Standards Regulations, s. 9(4) |
| holiday pay → | 8h/day · 40h/week | Daily overtime hours are not counted again weekly | Employment Standards Act (NWT) |
| holiday pay → | 48h/week | Weekly threshold only — no daily rule | Labour Standards Code, Minimum Wage Order (General) |
NunavutNU holiday pay → | 8h/day · 40h/week | Daily overtime hours are not counted again weekly | Labour Standards Act (Nunavut) |
OntarioON holiday pay → | 44h/week | Weekly threshold only — no daily rule | Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 22(1) |
| holiday pay → | 44h/week | Weekly threshold only — no daily rule | Employment Standards Act (2026) |
QuebecQC holiday pay → | 40h/week | Weekly threshold only — no daily rule | Act respecting labour standards, s. 52 |
| holiday pay → | 8h/day · 40h/week | Daily overtime hours are not counted again weekly | Saskatchewan Employment Act, ss. 2-17 and 2-18 |
YukonYT holiday pay → | 8h/day · 40h/week | Daily overtime hours are not counted again weekly | Employment Standards Act (Yukon) |
Thresholds are the general ones. Farm work, construction, trucking, care work and several named professions run on separate schedules in most jurisdictions — each province page says where its rules stop.
In Alberta, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, nothing is owed until the week passes 44 hours — 48 in Nova Scotia. A calculator built for the United States, run against an Ontario week, reports overtime the statute does not require.
Hours past 8 in a day are overtime in 7 of the 13, whatever the week totals. The other 6 — Ontario and Quebec among them — count only the week, so a 12-hour shift can be worth exactly 12 ordinary hours.
Overtime in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador is one and a half times the provincial minimum wage rather than a multiple of your own rate. Listed occupation classes in Nova Scotia are paid the same way. Above that floor, what governs is your contract.
A statutory holiday is paid whether or not the business opens, provided you meet the qualifying test. The amount is an average of recent wages, and the average is built differently in every jurisdiction — Ontario divides four work weeks by 20, British Columbia divides the previous 30 calendar days by the days actually worked in them, Alberta averages over four weeks. All of them leave overtime pay out of that base.
Stat holiday pay across Canada — the qualifying test, the dates ahead and what changes when you work the day.
Most jurisdictions let overtime be taken as paid time off instead of money, at the employee’s request or by agreement, usually in writing. The usual exchange is an hour and a half off for each overtime hour; Alberta is the exception and banks hour for hour. Banked time also expires — each jurisdiction sets a window measured in months, and what is left when it closes has to be paid out.
Banks, airlines, railways, interprovincial trucking, telecom, broadcasting and Canada Post answer to the Canada Labour Code instead of any province — standard hours of eight in a day and forty in a week, wherever in the country the job sits. Which employer you work for decides it, not which province you live in.
Overtime is counted inside a work week — a fixed, recurring seven-day period your employer designates. It does not have to start on a Sunday and it does not have to match your pay period; ask your employer which one applies, because it decides which hours land past the threshold. A week that looks like overtime on a calendar can stop being overtime once the real week boundary is applied.
The premium itself is arithmetic, not judgement. Every hour is paid once at your regular rate; overtime hours add half that rate again on top, which is what makes them time and a half. Payroll systems write it as two lines for the same reason this calculator does — the base pay and the premium come from different columns on the stub.
Questions people actually ask about Canadian overtime
Both, depending on where the work happened. Eight jurisdictions — British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Yukon — use 40 hours a week. Alberta, New Brunswick, Ontario and Prince Edward Island use 44. Nova Scotia uses 48. And whatever the weekly total comes to, 7 of the 13 also owe overtime on hours past 8 in a single day.
Nova Scotia, at 48 hours a week, with no daily rule underneath it. Alberta, New Brunswick, Ontario and Prince Edward Island sit at 44. Prince Edward Island only moved there on 30 June 2026 — it was 48 before, and most comparison tables and payroll blogs have not caught up.
British Columbia is the only province or territory whose overtime statute sets a second tier: time and a half past 8 hours in a day, double time past 12. Everywhere else double time comes from a collective agreement or an employer policy, not from employment standards law.
Provincial rules do not reach you. Federally regulated workplaces — banks, airlines, railways, interprovincial trucking and shipping, telecommunications, broadcasting, ports and Crown corporations — follow the Canada Labour Code instead: time and a half past 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week, in every province.
In Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon the weekly threshold drops from 40 to 32 in a week containing a holiday. In Manitoba and Quebec the holiday’s normal hours count as hours worked, which has the same effect for an 8-hour day, and the Canada Labour Code shortens the week by 8 hours for each holiday. Where no such rule exists, the line does not move and hours you did not work are not hours worked — a paid holiday you took off does not on its own push the week past the threshold.
Because 5 of the 13 jurisdictions start later than 40. In Ontario a 44-hour week owes nothing at all; a tool built for the United States reports four hours of overtime for it. The opposite error is rarer but real — a tool fixed at 44 understates a Quebec or British Columbia week.
Overtally keeps the week for you, applies your province’s rules to it, and shows the arithmetic behind every line. Works offline, no account.
Overtally for iPhone — coming soonEvery 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.