Do Salaried Employees Get Overtime in Canada?
"You're on salary, so no overtime." It's one of the most common — and most costly — myths at work. Being paid a salary does not, by itself, remove your right to overtime. Here's what actually decides it.
The Myth in One Sentence
There is no rule anywhere in the federal, Ontario or Québec regimes that says "salaried employees are excluded from overtime." What exists instead is a general entitlement that applies to employees, plus a narrow list of exemptions defined by the type of work, not by the payment method. If your role is not on the exemption list, your salary does not change the fact that overtime is owed once you cross the threshold.
What Actually Decides It: Threshold Hours + Any Exemption
The test has two parts, and neither is "are you salaried?"
- Federal: overtime is owed after 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week (Canada Labour Code, s. 169), at 1.5× the regular rate (s. 174). That entitlement applies whether you are paid by the hour or on a salary.
- Ontario: overtime is owed after 44 hours in a work week (ESA, s. 22(1)), at 1.5×. It applies to salaried employees unless a specific ESA exemption applies to the role — the substance of the job, not the salary, is what can remove the entitlement.
- Québec: overtime is owed after 40 hours in a week (LNT, art. 52), at a majoration de 50 % — that is, 1.5× the usual hourly wage (art. 55).
Whether a particular managerial or professional role is exempt is a separate question that depends on duties, not pay structure. We cover it in detail in Overtime Exemptions: Are Managers and Supervisors Really Excluded?.
Turning a Salary Into an Hourly Rate
Overtime is expressed as a multiple of your regular rate — an hourly figure. So even a salaried employee's overtime must be calculated from an hourly base. Conceptually, your salary is converted to the regular hourly rate it represents, and each qualifying overtime hour is paid at 1.5× that rate.
In Québec, the law adds an important detail about the base: the 50% increase is calculated on the "salaire horaire habituel que touche la personne salariée à l'exclusion des primes établies sur une base horaire" (art. 55). In other words, the usual hourly wage is the base, excluding hourly-based premiums. The federal and Ontario regimes likewise build overtime on the "regular rate" rather than on any headline salary figure alone.
The practical point: a salary does not make your hours free above the threshold. It simply has to be translated into the hourly rate the statute multiplies by 1.5.
Beware the "All-Inclusive" Salary Clause
Some contracts state that the salary "includes all overtime" or that "no additional overtime will be paid." Treat these clauses with caution. Employment-standards entitlements are statutory minimums, and a contract generally cannot lawfully contract you out of a minimum standard. A clause purporting to waive statutory overtime does not automatically make the overtime disappear — the hours above the threshold can still be owed at the legal rate.
If your role genuinely falls within a specific exemption, that is a different matter — but the exemption comes from the statute and its regulations, not from a sentence in your offer letter.
Records Still Have to Be Kept — Even for Salaried Staff
A salary does not switch off your employer's record-keeping duties, and those records are your evidence.
- Federally, the employer must record the hours worked each day and the amounts paid as overtime (Canada Labour Standards Regulations, s. 24).
- In Ontario, the employer must record the dates and times the employee worked, and hours in excess of 44 in a week must be recorded (ESA, s. 15).
- In Québec, the employer must keep a register showing hours per day, weekly totals and overtime hours (Regulation N-1.1, r. 6, art. 1), and this appears on the pay slip (art. 46 LNT).
If your employer never tracked your hours because "you're salaried," that is a gap in their compliance — and your own timekeeping becomes all the more valuable.
What to Do If You're Salaried and Working Past the Threshold
- Count your weekly hours against your regime's threshold — 40 (federal/Québec) or 44 (Ontario).
- Check whether a specific exemption really applies to your duties, rather than assuming your title excludes you.
- Work out your hourly regular rate from your salary — that is the figure the 1.5× multiplies.
- Keep your own hours log, especially if your employer keeps none.
Cadre
Ontario — Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 22(1): "Subject to subsection (1.1), an employer shall pay an employee overtime pay of at least one and one-half times his or her regular rate for each hour of work in excess of 44 hours in each work week or, if another threshold is prescribed, that prescribed threshold."
The entitlement is framed around "an employee" — not "an hourly employee." Exemptions that remove it are defined in the regulations by the nature of the work, not by whether pay is a salary or an hourly wage.
Sources: Employment Standards Act, 2000 (S.O. 2000, c. 41), s. 22, s. 15; Canada Labour Code (R.S.C. 1985, c. L-2), Part III, s. 169, s. 174; Canada Labour Standards Regulations, s. 24; Loi sur les normes du travail (RLRQ, c. N-1.1), art. 52, 55, 46; Regulation N-1.1, r. 6, art. 1.
CTA
On salary and working long hours? Check what you're owed
Being paid a salary does not cancel overtime — it just means the figure has to be worked back to an hourly rate above your threshold. PayeMesHeures is an hours-audit tool that compares your actual worked hours against your pay records and applies the legal floor for your regime (federal, Ontario or Québec). Starting is free. Run your audit and find out whether your salary has been quietly absorbing unpaid overtime.