British Columbia Overtime Pay Calculator (2026)
British Columbia pays time and a half after 8 hours in a day and double time after 12, plus time and a half after 40 hours in a week. Enter the week you actually worked and it is priced against that rule, hour by hour, with the arithmetic shown for every line.
Employment Standards Act, s. 40
live · follows the calculator
- 8h/day → ×1.5 · 12h → ×2
- 40h/week → ×1.5
this week · 42 h · under British Columbia’s rules
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.
no signup · runs in your browser · nothing you type is sent anywhere
The full receipt — every line opens into its arithmetic
42h worked
$1,100.00
No weekly overtime owed: hours already paid a daily premium do not count again toward the 40. No hour is counted twice.
Assumes a Sunday workweek. Your employer sets this and it is printed on your stub — the app asks properly.
+$176.00 over the $924.00 a flat tracker shows for this week.
Employment Standards Act, s. 40 · reviewed · How we calculate
This, automatically, every shift.
The app is the same engine running on every shift you work — offline, no account. It is on Google Play now; the iPhone version is next.
Overtally for iPhone — coming soonThe rule British Columbia applies
Overtime in British Columbia turns over at 8h/day · 40h/week. Everything below comes from Employment Standards Act, s. 40, linked in the card.
British Columbia · 2026
Employment Standards Act, s. 40| rule | applies when | paid at |
|---|---|---|
| Daily overtime | Past 8 hours in a work day | 1.5× your regular rate |
| Double time | Past 12 hours in a work day | 2× your regular rate |
| Weekly overtime | Past 40 hours in a work week | 1.5× your regular rate |
| The two together | An hour already paid as daily overtime is not counted again toward the week | — |
worth knowing
- Double time past 12 hours is the only statutory double-time rule among the provinces and territories; the Canada Labour Code pays time and a half only.
Thresholds change at every border — every province and state sits side by side in one table. The rate itself is time and a half, half the rate again on top of each overtime hour, and double time past 12 hours in a work day.
Statutory holiday pay
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.
British Columbia sets the day's pay by its own formula: Total wages in the 30 calendar days before ÷ the days worked in them. The window and the divisor change at every border — some jurisdictions average recent wages, some take a percentage, and some simply pay a normal day.
the part that surprises people
British Columbia 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 days whose answer changes at the border — British Columbia keeps these, under the name the statute uses here. Each one opens who else in Canada owes the day: Family Day · Victoria Day · British Columbia Day · National Day for Truth and Reconciliation · Thanksgiving Day · Remembrance Day
The British Columbia formula, the qualifying test and this year's holiday dates → →Every jurisdiction's holiday-pay rule in one table →
Banking overtime instead of taking the money
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 is an hour and a half of paid time off for each overtime hour — the same 1.5 the money would have carried, converted into time. Alberta is the one jurisdiction that banks hour for hour instead, which makes the choice between pay and time off a different decision there than it is here.
In British Columbia a time bank is set up at your written request, and overtime wages are credited to it at the overtime rates the Employment Standards Act requires (s. 42(1)–(2)). You can ask at any time for all or part of it to be paid out, or to take it as paid time off at a time you and the employer agree on (s. 42(3)). Section 42 sets no expiry date for banked time. The employer can close the bank after one month’s written notice, and within six months of closing it must settle the balance by paying it out, giving paid time off or a mix of the two (s. 42(3.1)–(3.2)). On termination of employment, or when the employer receives your written request to close the bank, it must pay out whatever is credited (s. 42(5)).
A week, priced
44h at $26.00 an hour, run through British Columbia’s rules by the same engine as the calculator above.
Each 13-hour day carries 4 hours at time and a half and 1 at double time; Wednesday adds 2 more at time and a half. That leaves 32 straight-time hours in the week, short of 40, so nothing is added again weekly. The same hour is never paid a premium twice.
| line | hours | rate | amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | 44h | $26.00 | $1,144.00 |
| Daily overtime1.5× | 10h | +$13.00 | $130.00 |
| Daily overtime2× | 2h | +$26.00 | $52.00 |
| What the week is worth | 44h | $1,326.00 |
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.
Where these rules stop
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 British Columbia 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.
British Columbia overtime — the questions people ask
Is overtime daily or weekly in British Columbia?
Both. Overtime starts past 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week, and an hour already paid as daily overtime is not counted again toward the weekly total, so no hour carries two premiums.
What is the overtime rate in British Columbia?
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.
Does British Columbia pay double time?
Yes. Past 12 hours in a single work day, British Columbia pays double the regular rate, above the time and a half that starts at 8. It is the only statutory double-time rule among the provinces and territories.
Do salaried employees get overtime in British Columbia?
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.
Can my employer average my hours over more than one week?
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.
Does a statutory holiday change the overtime threshold that week?
Not in British Columbia — the threshold stays at 40. 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. Other jurisdictions do move the line: Saskatchewan, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut drop to 32 hours in a holiday week, and Manitoba and Quebec count the holiday’s hours as hours worked.
Every province and territory
sources
- Employment Standards Act, s. 40
- Employment Standards Act, s. 42 — time banks
- Employment Standards Act, s. 45 — statutory holiday pay
- Canada Labour Code, Part III — hours of work and overtime
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.