Employment Law/Overtime
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How do I know when I am entitled to overtime pay?
To find out if you are entitled to overtime pay under the Alberta Employment Standards Code, you have to consider your whole workweek. For most employees covered by the Employment Standards Code, the overtime hours are the greater of either
- the total of any hours worked in excess of eight per day (if you worked ten hours per day for five days, overtime would be ten hours) or
- any more than forty-four hours during the workweek (if you worked forty-eight hours, overtime would be four hours).
What is a workweek?
For the purposes of the Alberta Employment Standards Code, a workweek is either
- the time between midnight one Saturday and midnight the next Saturday, or
- seven consecutive days that are established as the workweek by the practice of your employer.
I am an ambulance driver and my shifts are often longer than eight hours. Should I be getting overtime pay for the extra hours above eight?
No. There are some special provisions for employees who might work for longer periods at a time due to the nature of their job. An ambulance driver must work more than ten hours for each day of the workweek or more than sixty hours in a workweek to claim overtime hours.
Other occupations that are treated differently are
- employees working in field services (field catering, geophysical exploration, land surveying, logging and lumbering),
- employees engaged in highway and railway construction and brush clearing,
- employees of irrigation districts (other than office workers), and
- employees in the nursery, oil-well servicing, taxicab, and trucking industries.
Is there a minimum amount that must be paid as overtime pay?
Yes. Overtime pay must be at least 1.5 times your regular wage rate.
When I took my new job, my boss said that he had an overtime agreement with the rest of the employees. What did he mean?
Any employee or group of employees can make an agreement with an employer that they will accept time off with pay instead of overtime pay. The agreement can relate to all overtime pay or part of it.
The agreement must include a term that states that the time off is to be taken within three months of the end of the pay period when it was earned. So if you are paid at the end of each month and you earned the time off in January, you could take that time off before the end of April. A longer delay than three months is permitted only if it is in a collective agreement or the Director of Employment Standards has authorized it.
I am paid on a commission basis. How will my entitlement to overtime be calculated?
If your pay is based only on commission or piecework, your overtime pay is based on the current minimum wage rate.
If your wages are based partly on commission or piecework, your overtime pay is based on the salary part of your wages if that amount is more than minimum wage. If the salary part is less than minimum wage, the overtime pay is based on minimum wage rates.
I am a student and I only work on weekends. Most weeks I work eight hours on Saturday and Sunday. Two weeks ago one of the other staff was on vacation, and I was scheduled in for two twelve hour shifts. I worked both shifts thinking I would get four hours from each day for a total of eight overtime hours. I did not receive any overtime pay. Am I entitled to any overtime pay?
It depends on the kind of work you do.
In general, except as noted below, overtime is all hours worked in excess of:
- eight hours a day, or
- 44 hours a week,
Overtime hours are to be calculated both on a daily and on a weekly basis. The higher of the two numbers is overtime hours worked in the week. All employees, including those who are paid a weekly, monthly, or annual salary, must be paid overtime pay for overtime hours they work.
However, a number of industries and occupations are subject to variations in daily and weekly hours worked before overtime is payable (for example: workers in the logging, trucking and taxi cab industries). In addition, various employees (such as employees on a farm or a ranch and various types of salespersons) are exempt from the overtime rule. For complete lists, please see the external resources.
Our family employs a nanny. She rooms and boards with us. Normally she works a nine hour day, spread out over about 12 hours, with 2 half hour meal breaks and a 3.5 hour break in the afternoon. We are planning on going away for the week and leaving our nanny in charge of the children. Must we pay her overtime?
No. There are numerous employees who are exempt from the rule regarding overtime and overtime pay. They include:
- employees on a farm or a ranch
- domestic employees
- various types of salespersons
- professionals such as real estate brokers, and licensed insurance and securities salespersons
- professions such as architects, engineers, lawyers, psychologists and information systems professionals
- managers, supervisors and those employed in a confidential capacity
- licensed land agents
- instructors or counsellors at a non-profit educational or recreational camp
- extras in a film or video production
- employees covered by other Acts (academic staff)
- municipal police officers
More Information
For more information, please see our External Resources
See Also
This page was last updated in April, 2008.
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