How this calculator works
Pick your jurisdiction, enter an hourly rate or an annual salary (either way, the calculator derives your hourly rate from your regular hours per week), then enter how many overtime hours you worked in that one heavy week and how often you're paid. It applies your jurisdiction's overtime rate to those hours for the before-tax figure, then estimates the after-tax value the way payroll actually estimates withholding: assume this pay period repeats all year, work out the tax on that hypothetical annual income with and without the overtime, and take the difference. That's genuinely how CRA's periodic withholding method works, which is also why your pay frequency changes the after-tax estimate even though it never changes your gross overtime pay.
Overtime rate = 1.5× your regular hourly rate (New Brunswick: 1.5× minimum wage, not your own rate)
After-tax estimate = [Net(annualized pay WITH the overtime) − Net(annualized pay WITHOUT it)] ÷ pay periods per year
No, overtime isn't taxed at a special rate
There's a persistent myth that overtime pay is taxed at a higher rate than regular pay, as if the government singles it out. It isn't — CRA's own Special Payments Chart confirms overtime pay is regular taxable, pensionable and insurable income, calculated the same way as your ordinary wages, whether it's paid in the same pay period as the work or later. What actually happens on a heavy overtime week is a withholding effect, not a tax-rate effect: payroll estimates your tax bracket for the year by assuming whatever you earned this period keeps happening all year, so a large overtime cheque temporarily makes you look like a much higher earner and gets over-withheld — the same mechanic behind why a bonus cheque looks so heavily taxed. None of that changes what you actually owe when you file; it just moves some of your own money from this paycheque to your eventual refund.
Thresholds vs. your contract
Every threshold and rate in the table further down is a legislated floor — the least an employer can pay once you cross it — not a cap or a typical outcome. A contract or collective agreement can promise a lower threshold (overtime after 37.5 hours instead of 44, say) or a richer rate, and that promise stands: employment standards set the minimum a jurisdiction will enforce, not a ceiling on generosity. What a contract can never legally do is set the threshold higher, or the rate lower, than the statutory minimum — a policy stating "overtime starts at 50 hours" in a 44-hour province is unenforceable to the extent it falls short of the Act.
Averaging agreements and banking overtime as time off
An averaging agreement lets an employer schedule genuinely irregular hours — heavier one week, lighter the next — and calculate overtime against the average across a whole multi-week period instead of week by week, so light weeks offset heavy ones. It has to be arranged properly to count: most provinces require it in writing before the period begins, several cap how long one can run, and Quebec goes further, requiring the employer to obtain prior written authorization from the CNESST. Where a valid agreement applies, this calculator's single-week threshold display doesn't reflect your real entitlement — the relevant number becomes your average over the whole agreed period. Separately, most jurisdictions also let an employer offer paid time off instead of cash for overtime, but only by written agreement, never unilaterally — the standard conversion is 1.5 hours off per overtime hour worked, matching the 1.5× cash rate (Alberta pays only 1 hour of time off per hour for agreements made since September 2019), with a deadline of 3 to 12 months to use it before any unused balance must be paid out in cash. New Brunswick doesn't allow banking at all: overtime there must always be paid in cash.
New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador: pegged to minimum wage, not your pay
Two provinces set their overtime rate against minimum wage instead of the employee's own pay. New Brunswick's published rate is 1.5 times minimum wage — $23.85 an hour as of April 1, 2026 — regardless of what the employee actually earns. For someone earning $30.00 an hour, six overtime hours at New Brunswick's flat rate comes to 6 × $23.85 = $143.10, well short of the $270.00 a standard 1.5-times-your-own-wage rule would pay elsewhere — a $126.90 gap on six hours alone, widening further for anyone earning more. Newfoundland and Labrador uses the same minimum-wage-based approach by regulation, resetting every April 1; this calculator doesn't have a verified current figure for it on file, so it falls back to the standard 1.5-times-your-own-rate calculation there instead — see "What this does not model" below.
Two worked examples — how thresholds decide the hour count
Federal, the "greater of" rule: a federally-regulated employee earns $30.00/hr and works 9-hour days, five days a week — 45 hours total. That's 5 hours over the daily 8-hour standard and separately 5 hours over the weekly 40-hour standard — the same 5 hours counted two ways, not two batches. The federal rule pays whichever count is larger, so this employee is owed exactly 5 overtime hours, not 10: regular pay 40 × $30.00 = $1,200.00, overtime 5 × $45.00 (1.5×) = $225.00, gross week $1,425.00. Run through the calculator with weekly pay and Ontario for tax purposes, that $225.00 is worth about $143.15 after payroll's estimated withholding — a 63.6% share kept.
British Columbia, the daily-and-weekly rule: this one doesn't simply take whichever count is bigger. An employee earning $25.00/hr works the same 9-hour, 5-day week (45 hours). Daily overtime: 1 hour over 8/day on each of 5 days at 1.5× = $37.50/hr, so 5 × $37.50 = $187.50. The weekly check differs: British Columbia counts only the first 8 hours worked on any day toward the 40-hour weekly threshold, so the same hours aren't paid twice — 5 × 8 = 40 hours already counted, exactly at the threshold, so no additional weekly overtime is owed. Gross week: $1,000.00 regular plus $187.50 overtime = $1,187.50.
Worked example — using the calculator
Ontario, $32.00/hr, 40 regular hours a week, 8 overtime hours in one week, paid biweekly. Overtime rate $32.00 × 1.5 = $48.00/hr, so overtime pay before tax is 8 × $48.00 = $384.00. Regular pay for the two-week period is 40 × 2 × $32.00 = $2,560.00, so gross pay with the overtime added is $2,944.00. Payroll annualizes this period to estimate withholding: without the overtime, $2,560 × 26 pay periods = $66,560; with it, $2,944 × 26 = $76,544. Net pay on those two figures comes to $51,559.14 and $57,968.58; the difference, brought back to one pay period, is ($57,968.58 − $51,559.14) ÷ 26 ≈ $246.52 — a 64.2% share kept of the $384.00, lower than this person's overall average tax rate because it's taxed at their marginal rate stacked on top, the same mechanic a bonus uses. If this is a one-off heavy week, the amount actually owed at tax time is based on real annual income, not this annualized guess — some of what's withheld here may still arrive later as a refund.
Overtime thresholds and rates by jurisdiction, 2026
Every jurisdiction's threshold, its overtime rate, and where each figure was checked — sourced and dated individually, since several were confirmed only via search-engine snippets after the government site itself blocked automated access.
| Jurisdiction | Overtime threshold | Overtime rate | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal (Canada Labour Code) | 8 hrs/day or 40 hrs/week — whichever gives more OT | 1.5× regular wage | canada.ca, 26 Aug 2026 |
| Alberta | 8 hrs/day or 44 hrs/week ("8/44 rule") | at least 1.5× wage | alberta.ca, read 5 Sep 2026 |
| British Columbia | 8 hrs/day (12+ at 2×) or 40 hrs/week ‡ | 1.5× (2× beyond 12 hrs/day) | gov.bc.ca, 31 Jan 2024 |
| Manitoba | 8 hrs/day or 40 hrs/week | 1.5× wage | gov.mb.ca, 29 Sep 2022 |
| New Brunswick | 44 hrs/week | 1.5× minimum wage ($23.85/hr) † | gnb.ca, read 5 Sep 2026 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 40 hrs/week | minimum wage × 1.5 § | assembly.nl.ca (Act); NR 38/22, eff. 1 Apr 2024 |
| Northwest Territories | 8 hrs/day or 40 hrs/week (32 in a stat-holiday week) | at least 1.5× wage | ece.gov.nt.ca, read 5 Sep 2026 |
| Nova Scotia | 48 hrs/week (most employees) | 1.5× wage | novascotia.ca, read 5 Sep 2026 |
| Nunavut | 8 hrs/day or 40 hrs/week (32 in a general-holiday week) | at least 1.5× wage | gov.nu.ca, consol. current to 13 Jun 2022 |
| Ontario | 44 hrs/week | 1.5× regular rate | ontario.ca, 5 Feb 2026 |
| Prince Edward Island | 44 hrs/week (lowered from 48, 30 Jun 2026) | 1.5× wage | PEI Employment Standards Act (Bill 76), ss.15 & 24, in force 30 Jun 2026 |
| Quebec | 40 hrs/week ‖ | 1.5× wage (50% premium) | Act respecting labour standards ss.52, 55, via CanLII |
| Saskatchewan | 8 hrs/day and 40 hrs/week ¶ | 1.5× wage | saskatchewan.ca, read 5 Sep 2026 |
| Yukon | 8 hrs/day or 40 hrs/week # | 1.5× wage | Yukon Employment Standards Act, general fact sheet |
† New Brunswick's $23.85/hr figure is stated by gnb.ca "as of April 1, 2026" and resets every April 1 with minimum wage — re-verify after that date in future years.
§ Newfoundland and Labrador sets its overtime rate by regulation (NR 38/22) as minimum wage × 1.5, reset every April 1; the current dollar figure was not independently confirmed for this page, so the calculator above falls back to 1.5× your own entered rate for this jurisdiction. See "What this does not model."
‡ British Columbia's 2× rate for hours beyond 12 in a single day, and its rule counting only the first 8 hours of each day toward the 40-hour weekly threshold, are not separately modelled by the calculator above — it applies a flat 1.5× to whatever overtime hours you enter.
‖ Quebec's 40-hour threshold and 1.5× (50% premium) rate are confirmed directly against the statute text (ss.52 and 55) via CanLII. Quebec's averaging ("étalement") and time-off-in-lieu mechanics were confirmed only via search-engine snippets of CNESST's own pages, which blocked direct automated access during research — treat those two mechanics, not the threshold or rate, as medium rather than high confidence.
¶ Saskatchewan's own government site (saskatchewan.ca) blocked direct automated access during research; the figures above are attributed to the correct primary URL via search-engine snippets rather than a direct fetch — medium confidence.
# Yukon's own government site blocked direct automated access to both its general and averaging-agreement fact sheets during research; the threshold and rate above come from a search-index date of September 2021 on the general fact sheet rather than a direct fetch — medium confidence.
What this does not model
It does not derive your overtime-hour count from a work schedule (you enter it directly), so British Columbia's 2× rate beyond 12 hours/day and the exact daily-vs-weekly distribution behind a "greater of" comparison aren't modelled. It uses a standard 1.5×-your-own-rate calculation for Newfoundland and Labrador, since its real minimum-wage-linked rate wasn't independently confirmed. And it doesn't check for an averaging agreement, a modified-work permit, or a role-based exemption — any of these can change whether your hours are legally overtime at all, and none of them are things a calculator can see.
FAQ
Is overtime actually taxed at a higher rate than my regular pay?
No — there's no special "overtime tax rate." Overtime pay is ordinary employment income: it's added to whatever you've already earned in the pay period and taxed, CPP'd and EI'd exactly like the rest of your wages. What genuinely differs is withholding on a single heavy pay period, because payroll estimates your tax bracket for the year by assuming that period's pay repeats all year — a one-off overtime week can look like a raise it isn't, and get taxed at the higher bracket that assumption implies. Your actual tax bill at year-end depends on your real total income for the year, not any single period.
What's the difference between a daily and a weekly overtime threshold?
A weekly threshold (most of Canada) counts total hours across the whole week and pays overtime only once that total is crossed — work 6-hour days all week and you can hit 40+ hours without ever exceeding a daily limit. A daily threshold (British Columbia, Alberta, the federal jurisdiction, and several territories) also pays overtime for any single day that runs long, even in a week that stays under the weekly total. Where a jurisdiction has both, the general Canadian rule is to pay whichever calculation produces more overtime hours — not to add the two together and double-pay the same hours, which is why British Columbia's rule only counts the first eight hours of each day toward its weekly total.
What is an averaging agreement, and does it change my overtime?
It's a formal arrangement — written, and in some provinces requiring government approval or advance notice — that lets an employer schedule irregular hours (say, four 10-hour days one week and three the next) and calculate overtime against the average over that whole period instead of week by week. Done properly, it can mean fewer hours legally count as overtime even though some individual weeks run long, because the shorter weeks offset them. It is not something an employer can apply retroactively or informally: most jurisdictions require it in writing before the schedule starts, and Quebec requires the employer to obtain prior written authorization from the CNESST rather than simply agreeing with the employee. If you're not sure whether one applies to you, ask for it in writing.
Can my employer give me time off instead of paying overtime in cash?
In most jurisdictions, yes, but only with your written agreement (or a collective agreement) — an employer can't unilaterally decide to bank your overtime instead of paying it. The usual conversion is 1.5 hours of paid time off for every overtime hour worked, matching the usual 1.5x cash rate, though Alberta pays only 1 hour of time off per overtime hour for agreements made since September 2019, and New Brunswick doesn't allow banking overtime at all — it must be paid in cash. Every jurisdiction that allows it also sets a deadline (commonly 3, 6 or 12 months) to actually use the banked time, after which unused time must be paid out in cash.
Why does New Brunswick calculate my overtime off minimum wage instead of my own pay?
New Brunswick — and Newfoundland and Labrador, the only other province that does this — sets its overtime rate as 1.5 times minimum wage, not 1.5 times your actual hourly rate. For anyone earning above minimum wage, that produces a smaller overtime premium than every other province's 1.5-times-your-own-wage rule pays, and the gap grows the more you earn. It's a genuine feature of how those two provinces' employment standards are written, not a calculation error.
Does being salaried mean I'm not entitled to overtime?
Not automatically — being paid a salary instead of an hourly rate doesn't by itself remove your overtime entitlement. What can remove it is a specific, legally defined exemption for your role: certain managers and supervisors, some professionals, and a handful of other job categories are exempt in most jurisdictions, but the tests are narrow, and a job title alone ("manager" on a business card) doesn't always hold up if the actual duties don't match. This calculator doesn't check for exemptions — if you're salaried and unsure whether overtime rules apply to you, your provincial or federal labour standards office can tell you based on your actual job duties.
This page is general information based on published 2026 federal and provincial employment-standards rules and CRA payroll guidance, not legal, tax or employment advice. Your own contract, collective agreement or employer's actual payroll practice may differ — talk to your provincial or federal labour standards office, or a licensed professional, about your specific situation.