A shift that runs long is easy to feel and hard to price. You work ten hours on a Tuesday, nine on a Thursday, and by Friday you have no idea whether you are looking at two overtime hours or five, because that depends on a rule you have probably never read.
This tool splits your hours into two buckets: the part that counts as a standard day, and the part above it. Enter what you worked, set the standard day length, and it totals both sides so you can see the shape of a week before you check a pay stub.
Enter hours worked per day to split them into regular and overtime hours.
How the calculator works
Give it your hours for each day and tell it what a standard day is. The default is 8 hours, what most schedules are built around, and you can change it to 7.5 or 10. Every day is handled the same way: at or under the standard, all of it is regular; over, and the standard part is regular while the remainder is overtime. Press Calculate and you get regular hours to two decimal places, overtime hours to two decimal places, and the standard you used.
A worked week: Monday 8, Tuesday 10, Wednesday 7.5, Thursday 9, Friday 6. Monday is a clean 8 regular. Tuesday puts 8 into regular and 2 into overtime. Wednesday is 7.5 regular with nothing over. Thursday gives another 8 regular and 1 overtime. Friday is 6 flat. Totals: 37.50 regular hours and 3.00 overtime hours, which is 40.50 hours across the week. Notice that the regular total is below 40 even though you worked past 40 in total, because Wednesday and Friday came in short and the calculator does not top them up.
The daily split is not the legal rule
Here is the part worth being careful about. The calculator works day by day, because that is how a roster looks when you are reading it. The law in Ontario does not work that way. Under the Employment Standards Act, most employees get overtime pay after 44 hours in a work week, at one and a half times the regular rate.
Run both rules on the same week of five 9-hour days and the difference is obvious. Day by day you have 5 overtime hours, one for each day over 8. Week by week you have 1, because 45 hours minus the 44-hour threshold is a single overtime hour. Your employer owes you for hours over 44, so a stub showing one overtime hour that week is not a mistake.
Neither number is wrong, they answer different questions. Use the daily view to plan a schedule and see which days are running long. Use the weekly threshold when you work out what you should be paid.
What to check before you trust the number
The exemptions are what catch salaried people. Some categories of employee, including certain managers and professionals, fall outside the overtime rules entirely, so a job title does not automatically mean free extra hours. Averaging agreements move the threshold as well: an employer and employee can agree in writing to average hours across two or more weeks, which smooths a busy week against a quiet one. And overtime is always time and a half on your regular rate, so two jobs with different rates pay differently for the same hours.
Also worth knowing that past 48 hours in a week requires written agreement in Ontario, and that a shift split across midnight belongs to whichever work week your employer defines. If a pay stub looks wrong, the Ministry of Labour’s employment standards information is where to start.
Other tools
- Part-time take-home pay — turn those hours into what actually arrives in your account
- Pay period calculator — find the dates your pay covers
- Procrastination hours — the hours in the week that went somewhere else
Frequently asked questions
What counts as overtime?
Hours worked beyond your threshold. On this tool the threshold is the standard day you set, which defaults to 8. In Ontario the legal threshold for most employees is 44 hours in a work week, paid at one and a half times the regular rate.
Is overtime calculated daily or weekly?
Depends who is asking. This calculator splits each day so you can see which shifts run long. Employment standards in Ontario are calculated on the work week. A week where every day is 9 hours gives you 5 hours over a daily standard of 8 but only 1 hour over the weekly threshold.
How is the overtime rate worked out?
Take your regular hourly rate, multiply it by 1.5, then multiply by the overtime hours. At $20 an hour that is $30 for every hour past the threshold, so the single 45th hour of that week is worth $30 rather than $20. Salaried employees get the same treatment: the regular rate comes from salary divided by the non-overtime hours in the week.
Does everyone qualify for overtime pay?
No. Some employees are exempt from the overtime provisions and some are covered by an averaging agreement that moves when the threshold is crossed, and hours of work rules carry their own exceptions. Read your employment agreement, or ask your employer in writing, to find out which situation you are in.
I worked past the threshold and got straight time. What now?
Start by asking your employer how your hours were calculated, politely and in writing, because averaging agreements and exempt categories explain a lot of these cases. If the answer does not hold up, the employment standards information from the Ontario Ministry of Labour sets out what you are owed. Keep your own record of start and finish times while you sort it out.