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Alberta pays the greater of the daily calculation (over 8 hours) and the weekly calculation (over 44 hours) — never both added together. Enter the week you actually worked and it is priced against that rule, hour by hour, with the arithmetic shown for every line.
Last reviewed · maintained by Ihor Bezrukavnyk · how we calculate
your week in AB
A differential is not a separate bonus. It folds into the regular rate the multiplier is applied to, so every overtime hour that week gets more valuable — paying 1.5× on base plus 1.0× on the differential is the classic short-pay.
Sun 12 AM
Biweekly period · gross
$2,079.00
87h across 2 workweeks · $165.00 of it earned above straight time
workweeks in this period
what this week should pay · gross
45h
$1,133.00
Assumes a Sunday workweek. Your employer sets this and it is printed on your stub — the app asks properly.
missed by a flat tracker
+$165.00
Multiplying every hour by $22.00 shows $1,914.00 for this period.
This, automatically, every shift.
US and Canada · works offline · no account.
Overtime in Alberta turns over at 8h/day · 44h/week. Everything below comes from Employment Standards Code, s. 21, linked in the card.
Alberta · 2026
Employment Standards Code, s. 21| rule | applies when | paid at |
|---|---|---|
| Daily overtime | Past 8 hours in a work day | 1.5× your regular rate |
| Weekly overtime | Past 44 hours in a work week | 1.5× your regular rate |
| The two together | Whichever calculation comes out larger is paid; they are never added together | — |
A statutory holiday is not an unpaid day off. A qualifying employee is paid for it whether or not the business opens, and working the day is paid differently again — each jurisdiction sets whether that means holiday pay plus a premium for the hours worked, or regular pay plus a day off later.
One rule holds in every Canadian jurisdiction and is the easiest to get wrong: overtime pay is left out of the wage base the average is taken from. Averaging a gross figure that includes your premium hours overstates the holiday, which is why a big overtime week before a holiday does not raise it.
The amount is an average of what you recently earned. Alberta averages the wages of the four weeks before the holiday over the days actually worked in them. Elsewhere the window and the divisor differ — Ontario divides four work weeks by 20; British Columbia divides the previous 30 calendar days by the days worked in them — but the shape is always an average of recent regular wages.
the part that surprises people
Every Canadian jurisdiction leaves overtime pay out of that wage base. A week with twelve hours of overtime in it raises that week’s pay and does not raise the holiday pay by a cent — the two figures on the same stub are built from different money.
The Alberta formula, the qualifying test and this year’s holiday dates →
Most Canadian jurisdictions allow overtime to be taken as paid time off instead of pay — a time bank, or time off in lieu. It is not something an employer can simply decide: almost everywhere it takes a written agreement made before the hours are worked, and without one the overtime is money.
The usual exchange across the country is an hour and a half of paid time off for each overtime hour — the same 1.5 the money would have carried. Alberta is the exception: banked overtime here accrues hour for hour, so an overtime hour taken as time off is worth one hour off, not an hour and a half. Taking the pay and taking the time are not equivalent choices in Alberta.
Banked time also expires. Each jurisdiction sets a window — months rather than years — within which the time has to be taken, and what is still in the bank when it closes has to be paid out in money. If you are banking hours, the date they run out matters as much as the count, and both belong on your own record rather than only in the employer’s system.
44h at $26.00 an hour, run through Alberta’s rules by the same engine as the calculator above.
The four ten-hour days put 8 hours past the daily threshold. The week totals 44, which is exactly Alberta’s weekly threshold, so the weekly calculation returns nothing at all — and Alberta pays the greater of the two, never the sum. The 8 daily hours are what is owed.
| line | hours | rate | amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | 44h | $26.00 | $1,144.00 |
| Daily overtime1.5× | 8h | +$13.00 | $104.00 |
| What the week is worth | 44h | $1,248.00 |
Every hour is paid once at $26.00; the premium lines add what overtime puts on top of that. Half the rate again for time and a half, the rate again for double time — the total is the same as multiplying each hour out at 1.5× or 2×, and it is the way payroll writes it on a stub.
Every jurisdiction writes an exemption list, and the categories repeat across the country: work that is genuinely managerial or supervisory, several licensed professions, some agricultural and fishing work, and roles paid entirely on commission away from the workplace. Some provinces add information-technology professionals, particular transport roles or specific industries on their own schedules. A job title does not settle the question — the work actually performed does, and the exemption list published by Alberta is where to check it.
Some jobs are not covered by provincial rules at all. Banks, airlines, railways, interprovincial trucking and shipping, telecommunications, broadcasting, ports and Crown corporations are federally regulated: their overtime comes from the Canada Labour Code — time and a half past 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week — no matter which province the work happens in.
A collective agreement can improve on the statutory minimum, and in some jurisdictions it can rearrange parts of it. If you have one, it is the first document to read, and the figures on this page are the floor it has to clear.
Both, but never added together. Alberta runs the daily calculation — hours past 8 in a day — and the weekly one — hours past 44 in a week — and pays whichever produces more.
Time and a half of your regular rate. Every hour is paid once at that rate, and each overtime hour adds half of it again on top; the two together make the 1.5. Payroll normally prints them as separate lines, which is why the worked example above does too.
Not under Alberta law. The statute sets a single overtime rate, time and a half. Double time here comes from a collective agreement or an employer policy — British Columbia is the only province or territory whose employment standards act sets a second tier.
Salary is a way of being paid, not an exemption. What decides it is whether the work falls into a class the statute excludes — genuinely managerial work, certain licensed professions, some farm and transport roles. A salaried employee outside those classes is owed overtime like anyone else, with the salary converted to an hourly rate to calculate it.
Only under a formal arrangement. Most Canadian jurisdictions allow hours to be averaged across two or more weeks, but it takes a written agreement and, in several of them, an approval or a permit on top. Without one, each work week stands on its own and is counted on its own.
Not in Alberta — the threshold stays at 44. Hours you did not work are not hours worked, so a paid holiday you took off does not push the week over the line by itself. Two jurisdictions do move the line: Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories drop to 32 hours in a holiday week.
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.