How Much is Overtime Pay in BC British Columbia?

Whenever you work more than the official standard work hours, your employer must pay you for overtime. 

The official standard work hours are 40 hours a week, 8 hours a day, from Sunday to Saturday.

In general, any time worked beyond those hours merits overtime pay.

The way your overtime pay is calculated depends on how many hours you worked.

Below, we’ll walk you through how your overtime pay would be calculated based on your hours worked.

Key Insight

If you have an averaging agreement, are working under a variance or work in certain industries like agriculture, there are special rules that will dictate whether you are eligible for overtime pay.

Daily Overtime

Calculating daily overtime is quite simple.

Any hours worked beyond 8 hours in a day and up to 12 hours a day are eligible for time-and-a-half.

Even if you worked under 40 hours that same week, you would still be eligible for the time-and-a-half.

If you worked more than 12 hours in a day, you would need to be paid double time for those hours.

Example

Jen works as a receptionist at a paper company. On Monday, she works 8 hours. On Tuesday, she works 10 hours. On Wednesday, she works 13 hours. On Thursday, she works 7 hours.

Overall, she worked 38 hours that week, which places her under the 40 hours a week threshold for standard work hours.

However, she worked more than 8 hours a day on Tuesday and Wednesday for which she will get paid overtime by her employer. On Tuesday, she would get two hours at time-and-a-half. On Wednesday, she would get 4 hours at time-and-a-half, and 1 hour at double time.

Weekly Overtime

When it comes to weekly overtime, employers are required to pay their employees time-and-a-half for any hours worked past 40 hours a week, even if you were working under 8 hours in a day.

Example

Stephen works as a chef at a local college. On Monday through Wednesday, he worked 7 hours each day. From Thursday through Saturday, he worked 8 hours each day.

Overall, he worked 45 hours that week. Therefore, he would get paid 5 hours at time-and-a-half.

Statutory Holidays

If you work on a statutory holiday, you are paid time-and-a-half for the hours worked.

These hours won’t be included in your overtime hours for the week since you’re already getting compensated for them.

Instead, your weekly overtime threshold will be decreased by a fixed 8 hours from 40 hours to 32 hours.

Example

Tom who works as an auditor, usually works 8 hours a day, Monday through Friday. He ends up working 9 hours on Monday, which happens to be Family Day. He gets paid time-and-a-half for those 9 hours worked. Since he works 8 hours a day for the remainder of the week, from Tuesday to Friday, he won’t receive any other overtime pay.

If he had put in more than 8 hours any day from Tuesday to Friday, he would have exceeded the 32-hour weekly limit and would be eligible for overtime pay.

Understanding Rest Periods

As a general rule, every employee needs to have a rest period lasting a minimum of 32 consecutive hours free from work.

If you end up working during this period, you need to be paid time-and-a-half.

Let’s say, Angela works 7 days a week as a personal assistant.

Even though her hours come up to less than 40 hours a week, she must get paid time-and-a-half for the hours she works on Saturday since she doesn’t get a day off.

Vancouver street at night

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Do you get paid overtime on salary BC?
  • Who is eligible for overtime in BC?
Tara Al-Khudairi

Tara Al-Khudairihas worked in the financial services industry since 2017. She graduated from McMaster University with a degree in Finance and is pursuing her CFA.

She has worked at a major Canadian financial institution in various client-facing advisory roles, starting as a bank teller and working up to a Client Services Associate within the Asset Management division. She specializes in simplifying concepts of personal finance for people of various financial backgrounds.

When she’s not examining the markets looking for the next SHOP.TO, she’s either practicing yoga, planning her next vacation, or has her nose buried deep in a book.