Working late? Understanding overtime pay rules in Canada

December 4, 2025

Drew Maginn

Note: This article is intended to provide general guidance on overtime pay rules across Canada. Because overtime standards can differ by jurisdiction and change over time, be sure to check the current provincial or federal employment standards that apply to your organization to ensure compliance.

At one time or another, most organizations find themselves in a situation where they require their employees to work overtime. Whether it be to meet a tight deadline, attend an after-hours event or cover a shift for a sick co-worker, maintaining clear overtime pay policies, including overtime pay rates, is necessary to ensure consistency across your organization. When overtime rules and regulations aren’t up to date, documented and properly communicated, the impact of overtime pay compliance on business operations can quickly become a headache for finance, human resources and anyone else involved in the process.

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Federal or provincial standards? Overtime compliance requirements for Canadian employers

In Canada, overtime practices must align with federal or provincial standards. Federally regulated industries and workplaces, like banks, telecommunications companies and some transportation and shipping services, are governed by the Canada Labour Code (Part III), which addresses hours of work, including overtime. For non-federally regulated workplaces, provincial standards provide guidance on how to manage overtime, with some minor variations across different provinces and territories.

” Managing overtime is not as easy as filling in and processing a weekly timesheet. Beyond aligning with provincial or federal standards, administering overtime requires collaboration across multiple departments to ensure that your practices are accurate, consistent and properly implemented ”

From coast to coast: Overtime laws across Canada at a glance

It’s important to understand what constitutes “overtime” federally, as well as within each province and territory. This means understanding both the overtime rate paid to employees and when overtime is triggered based on hours worked in a given day or week.

The table below compares overtime management across different jurisdictions.

Jurisdiction	Overtime Rate and Hours Worked
Federal	1.5 times regular pay after 40 hours per week or 8 hours per day
Alberta	1.5 times regular pay after 44 hours per week or 8 hours per day
British Columbia	1.5 times regular pay after 40 hours per week or 8 hours per day 2 times regular pay after 12 hours per day
Manitoba	1.5 times regular pay after 40 hours per week or 8 hours per day
New Brunswick	1.5 times regular pay after 44 hours per week No daily overtime
Newfoundland and Labrador	1.5 times regular pay after 40 hours per week No daily overtime
Northwest Territories	1.5 times regular pay after 40 hours per week or 8 hours per day
Nova Scotia	1.5 times regular pay after 48 hours per week No daily overtime
Nunavut	1.5 times regular pay after 40 hours per week or 8 hours per day
Ontario	1.5 times regular pay after 44 hours per week No daily overtime
Prince Edward Island	1.5 times regular pay after 48 hours per week No daily overtime
Quebec	1.5 times regular pay after 40 hours per week No daily overtime
Saskatchewan	1.5 times regular pay after 40 hours per week or 8 hours per day
Yukon	1.5 times regular pay after 40 hours per week or 8 hours per day

Beyond these high-level definitions, there are a variety of other differences to monitor, both federally and provincially.

Differences in overtime laws by province and federal jurisdiction

To understand overtime laws in more detail, special attention needs to be paid to several factors that may impact when and how overtime is managed.

These include the below.

Written agreements: While employment standards set the general rules for overtime, the implementation of these rules may be affected by written agreements between the employee and employer. This may include provisions to average hours worked across multiple weeks, require overtime approval or offer time-in-lieu instead of overtime pay.
Time-in-lieu: In most jurisdictions, employers can offer time-in-lieu, or paid time off, to employees in exchange for overtime. This option can be appealing for organizations that do not want to provide overtime pay. But be sure that this arrangement is documented in writing and that other standardized rules are followed, including the rate of hours in lieu offered per hour of overtime worked (e.g., 1.5 hours for every hour) and how quickly employees must take lieu time after earning it (e.g., within three months).
Rest periods: Employment standards require employees to receive daily and weekly rest periods. For example, employees may be granted a certain number of rest hours between daily shifts (e.g., 11 hours in Ontario), as well as each week (e.g., 32 consecutive hours free from work in British Columbia).
Right to refuse: Just because an employee is asked to work overtime doesn’t mean they have to accept. In certain circumstances, such as a family emergency, employees can refuse overtime requests. However, if their employment agreement contains specific clauses about overtime, employees may be more limited in when they can refuse.
Eligibility: Not all employees are eligible for overtime or have different standards. This can include certain roles (typically managers and supervisors), professions (e.g., lawyers, doctors, engineers) and industries (e.g., construction, shipping).

Exceptions: As with many elements of employment standards, there are always exceptions to the rules. For example, in most instances, some overtime rules don’t apply to emergency situations, as long as the required approvals are in place and the proper paperwork is filed.

Certain federally regulated industries are managed outside the Canada Labour Code, such as the trucking and marine industries (as outlined through Exemptions from and Modifications to Hours of Work Provisions Regulations). There may be similar exemptions provincially, such as agricultural employees who are exempt from overtime provisions in Newfoundland.

Managing overtime is not as easy as filling in and processing a weekly timesheet. Beyond aligning with provincial or federal standards, administering overtime requires collaboration across multiple departments to ensure that your practices are accurate, consistent and properly implemented. This starts with ensuring that there is shared understanding of how overtime is managed, as well as having the systems in place to track, monitor and address any inconsistencies in your approach. While working extra hours may not be ideal, your employees may be less resistant if they know when and how overtime applies in their job.

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