Overtime and Stat Holiday Pay: Are You Being Paid Right?
This is a pay-stub check for four provinces. It is not a claim form, and it is not every exemption. Managers, some professionals, and some industries are outside the general rule. Read the exception list on the page linked for your province before you accuse a payroll system. If the extra pay is a bonus rather than overtime, that is bonus tax. The earning hub is how to earn more.
- Ontario: at least one and one-half times the regular rate after 44 hours in a work week, unless an exemption or a different threshold applies.
- British Columbia: time and a half after 8 hours in a day, up to 12; double time after 12 hours in a day; time and a half after 40 hours in a week. Only the first 8 hours of a day count toward the weekly total.
- Alberta: overtime is the greater of hours over 8 in a day or 44 in a week. Confirm the premium on Alberta's overtime page before you quote it at work.
- Quebec: time and a half after 40 hours in a week for most workers. A statutory holiday that falls on a normal work day counts toward those 40 hours.
- Ontario public holiday pay is regular wages plus vacation pay payable in the four work weeks before the holiday week, divided by 20. Quebec's indemnity is 1/20 of wages earned in the four complete weeks before the holiday week, excluding overtime.
Four overtime clocks
| Province | When overtime starts | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Ontario | After 44 hours in a work week. No general daily trigger. | At least 1.5 times the regular rate. |
| British Columbia | After 8 hours in a day, and after 40 hours in a week. | 1.5 times up to 12 hours in a day, then double time. Weekly overtime is 1.5 times, using only the first 8 hours of each day. |
| Alberta | The greater of hours over 8 in a day or 44 in a week. | See Alberta's overtime page. A shorter agreed week does not, by itself, lower the 8/44 rule. |
| Quebec | After 40 hours in a week for most workers. | 1.5 times the regular hourly rate. |
British Columbia's page is explicit that an employee cannot sign away overtime. It is also explicit about the 32-hour weekly rest: work during that rest is time and a half, and you do not stack that premium on top of overtime for the same hours. Quebec's overtime page says hours attached to a statutory holiday or vacation count as hours worked when you test the 40. A short week that includes a holiday can still produce overtime. That surprises people who only look at hours on the floor.
Stat holiday pay, Ontario and Quebec in full
Ontario lists nine public holidays: New Year's Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. Public holiday pay is all regular wages earned in the four work weeks before the work week of the holiday, plus vacation pay payable for those four weeks, divided by 20. Regular wages for this math exclude overtime, vacation pay, and the holiday pay itself. If you agree in writing or electronically to work the holiday, the guide gives two routes: regular wages for the hours worked plus a substitute day off with public holiday pay, or public holiday pay plus premium pay (one and a half times) for the hours worked and no substitute day. Premium pay is not stacked on overtime for the same hour. Read the qualifying rules. Missing the shift before or after the holiday, without reasonable cause, can cost the entitlement.
Quebec lists eight paid statutory holidays on the CNESST page, and pays an indemnity of 1/20 of wages earned during the four complete weeks of pay before the holiday week, excluding overtime. Commission pay uses 1/60 of wages over twelve weeks. Confirm the holiday list on that page rather than importing Ontario's nine. British Columbia and Alberta publish their own statutory-holiday lists and their own formula for the day's pay. Use those pages when the stub is from Vancouver or Calgary. This article does not restate a formula it has not quoted from the provincial page.
How to check the stub
- Write the hours each day for one pay period. Do not trust a total that hides the long day.
- Apply your province's clock, not your old province's. A move does not bring the old threshold with you.
- Find the overtime line and the rate. Time and a half of regular rate is not time and a half of minimum wage, unless your province's rule for that job actually says minimum wage. Read the page.
- On a holiday week, compute the indemnity with the formula above if you are in Ontario or Quebec, and compare it to the line called "stat" or "holiday."
- If the gap is real, ask payroll in writing, with the arithmetic. If the answer is "you're salaried," ask which exemption they are relying on. The word salaried is not itself an exemption.
Frequently asked questions
I am on salary. Do I get overtime?
Sometimes. Ontario's general rule is about hours, not about the word salary. Some jobs are exempt. The exemption is a category on the regulation, not a line in an offer letter that says "overtime does not apply" unless the statute allows that deal. Look up the category. Then look at the stub.
Can I agree to skip overtime?
British Columbia says the employer must pay overtime even if the employee agrees not to claim it. Other provinces limit contracting out of the minimum. A waiver in a handbook is not something to rely on. The government page is.
Does holiday pay replace overtime?
No. They are different lines. In Quebec, holiday hours can create overtime. In Ontario, premium pay for working the holiday is not also overtime on those same hours. Separate the lines on the stub before you add them.
Sources
- Ontario: overtime pay, ESA Part VIII
- Ontario: public holidays
- British Columbia: overtime pay
- Alberta: overtime hours and overtime pay
- Quebec CNESST: overtime
- Quebec CNESST: statutory holidays
