How to Ask Your Employer for Unpaid Overtime (Without Burning Bridges)

The single biggest mistake is to phrase the request as "would you mind paying me for the extra hours?" That invites a "no." Overtime above the applicable threshold, paid at one and one-half times the regular rate, is a legal minimum — not a discretionary bonus. Anchor your ask on that.

Which section you cite depends on your regime:

• Ontario: overtime is owed at 1.5× for each hour over 44 hours in a work week (Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 22(1)).
• Federal (banks, interprovincial transport, telecoms and other federal undertakings): 1.5× for hours over 8 in a day or 40 in a week (Canada Labour Code, s. 174(1) and s. 169(1)).
• Québec: a majoration de 50 % on the usual hourly wage over 40 hours per week (Loi sur les normes du travail, art. 55 and art. 52).

There is one federal detail worth flagging in your letter if you were promised time off instead of pay. Under the Canada Labour Code, banked time off in lieu that is not taken within the applicable period (three months, up to twelve outside a collective agreement) converts back into a monetary debt at 1.5×, payable within 30 days (s. 174(4)). So "you took the day off instead" is only a defence if the leave was actually granted and used in time.

A request with a precise figure is far harder to brush aside than a vague grievance. Build it from your own reconciliation:

1. Identify the pay periods in question, by date.
2. List the hours worked over the threshold for each week — 44 in Ontario, 40 federal/Québec (plus 8 per day federally).
3. State the rate: your regular hourly rate × 1.5.
4. Give the total owed, week by week and in sum.
5. Cite the section for your regime so the entitlement is unmistakable.
6. Request correction by a specific date — a fair window is one full pay cycle.

A short template:

Subject: Correction of unpaid overtime — [pay periods]

Dear [Manager/HR],

Reviewing my hours against my pay statements, I worked [X] hours above the [44-hour / 40-hour] weekly overtime threshold across the pay periods of [dates]. Under [ESA s. 22(1) / Canada Labour Code s. 174 / LNT art. 55], these hours are owed at one and one-half times my regular rate, totalling [$ amount]. I've attached my hours log by week. Could you review and correct this in the [next pay run / by DATE]? I'm glad to go through the figures together.

Thank you, [Name]

Notice the tone: factual, calm, specific, and open to discussion. You are stating an entitlement, not issuing a threat.

A dated, factual letter does two jobs at once.

First, it preserves the working relationship. A written request is calmer than a confrontation and gives the employer room to fix an honest payroll error without losing face. Many overtime shortfalls are genuine miscalculations of the threshold or the base rate, not bad faith.

Second, it builds evidence. Every Canadian regime obliges the employer to keep records of hours worked and overtime — hours per day and overtime paid, kept 36 months federally (Canada Labour Standards Regulations, s. 24); dates and times worked, kept three years in Ontario (ESA, s. 15); hours per day, weekly totals and overtime hours in Québec (Règlement N-1.1, r. 6, art. 1). Your dated letter, sent against those records, creates a clear paper trail. If you later go to the regulator, you arrive with a timeline the employer already saw.

Politeness should not mean patience without limits, because the recovery clock is already ticking in the background:

• Federal: the complaint must be filed within 6 months of the day the wages were due (Canada Labour Code, s. 251.01), and a payment order can reach back 24 months (s. 251.1(1.1)).
• Ontario: an order for wages cannot reach further than 2 years before the complaint (ESA, s. 111).
• Québec: a civil action is prescribed after one year, counted from each due date (LNT, art. 115) — the shortest window of the three.

So a polite ask should still be time-boxed. Give your employer a clear date to respond by, and be ready to escalate if that date passes. In Québec especially, every month you wait quietly lets an older pay period slip out of the one-year window for good.

If your dated request goes unanswered or is refused, the next step is the regulator for your regime. Federally, complaints go to the Labour Program, and payment orders are issued by the Head. In Ontario, you deal with the Ministry of Labour, with review before the Ontario Labour Relations Board. In Québec, you file with the CNESST, and disputes go to the Tribunal administratif du travail — never a "prud'hommes," which is the French system and does not exist in Canada. Your letter and hours log are exactly the file the regulator needs to open.