How to Calculate Your Overtime Pay in Ontario (Step by Step)

Step 1 — Determine your ESA "work week." Overtime in Ontario is measured over a work week, not a pay period. Your work week is a recurring period of seven consecutive days that your employer has established; if none is set, it defaults to a calendar week. This matters because you count hours within a single work week — you cannot smooth a busy week against a quiet one unless a valid averaging agreement exists (more below).

Step 2 — Count the hours over 44. Add up all the hours you actually worked in that work week. Every hour beyond 44 is an overtime hour (ESA, s. 22(1)). Remember: there is no statutory daily threshold in Ontario, so a 13-hour day does not, on its own, create overtime — only the weekly total over 44 does.

Step 3 — Multiply by 1.5× your regular rate. Each overtime hour is paid at at least one and one-half times your regular rate.

A Worked Example (Illustrative Figures)

Keep these numbers illustrative — substitute your own. Say your regular rate is $22.00/hour and you worked 52 hours in one work week:

1. Overtime hours: 52 − 44 = 8 hours.
2. Overtime rate: $22.00 × 1.5 = $33.00/hour.
3. Overtime owed: 8 × $33.00 = $264.00, on top of regular pay for the first 44 hours.

What if you did two different jobs for the same employer in the same week, at two different regular rates? The ESA handles this with a specific rule (s. 22(1.1)): if you had more than one regular rate in the work week, each hour over 44 is paid at 1.5× the rate for the work you were actually doing in that hour. You do not simply blend the rates — you look at what task the overtime hour belonged to and apply the matching rate. This is easy to get wrong by hand, so track which hours were at which rate.

Your employer can only average your hours over more than one week — so that a long week is offset by a short one — where a compliant averaging agreement is in place (s. 22(2)). Without a valid agreement, averaging does not apply and the straightforward 44-hour weekly threshold governs. If your employer tells you your overtime was "averaged out," ask to see the agreement.

Ontario allows paid time off in lieu of overtime pay, but only by agreement and under conditions (s. 22(7)): you receive 1.5 hours of paid time off for each hour of overtime worked, instead of the 1.5× payment. If you never agreed to this, or the time off was never actually given, the overtime remains payable in money.

Timing is decisive. Under the ESA, an employment standards officer cannot order wages that became due more than two years before the complaint was filed (s. 111). So the practical recovery window in Ontario is 2 years — every month that passes drops the oldest week off the end of what you can claim. Your regulator is the Ontario Ministry of Labour (with review before the Ontario Labour Relations Board); it is not a "prud'hommes," which is the French system.

• Unpaid Overtime in Canada: The Complete Guide
• 40 or 44 Hours? The Overtime Threshold That Decides When You Get Paid More
• Overtime Pay in Canada: When You're Owed Time-and-a-Half (1.5×)
• Are You a Federally Regulated Employee? Why It Changes Your Overtime Rights