Overtime Pay in Canada: When You're Owed Time-and-a-Half (1.5×)

Each of the three statutes sets the same minimum multiplier:

• Federal — Canada Labour Code, s. 174(1)(a): overtime is paid at "a rate of wages not less than one and one-half times their regular rate of wages."
• Ontario — ESA, s. 22(1): overtime pay of "at least one and one-half times his or her regular rate."
• Québec — LNT, art. 55 al. 1: a "majoration de 50 % du salaire horaire habituel" — a 50% uplift, which is the same as 1.5×.

The word "at least" matters. Your contract or collective agreement can promise more (double time, for example), and if it does, the employer is bound by the higher figure. But it can never promise less than the statutory 1.5×. This is a genuine reassurance for Canadian workers: in some countries, statutory overtime carries no premium at all and any uplift depends entirely on a contract or collective agreement. In the three Canadian regimes covered here, the 1.5× is a floor set by law — the starting point of your calculation, not something you have to negotiate for.

This is where the regimes stop agreeing, and where careless calculations go astray. The 1.5× is applied to a base rate, and each regime defines that base slightly differently.

• Federal: the multiplier applies to the "regular rate of wages" (s. 174). This is your ordinary hourly rate for the work.
• Québec: the majoration is calculated on the "salaire horaire habituel" — the usual hourly wage — but the law is explicit that it is computed "à l'exclusion des primes établies sur une base horaire" (excluding premiums established on an hourly basis, art. 55). In other words, hourly-based premiums are stripped out of the base before the 50% uplift is applied.
• Ontario: the multiplier applies to your "regular rate" for the work performed.

If you have more than one regular rate in a single week — say two different jobs for the same employer — Ontario handles this with a specific two-rates rule; the Ontario calculation guide walks through it.

Let's keep the numbers deliberately illustrative — do not treat them as your real rate. Suppose an Ontario employee has a regular rate of $25.00/hour and works 50 hours in one work week.

1. Threshold: Ontario overtime starts after 44 hours (ESA, s. 22(1)).
2. Overtime hours: 50 − 44 = 6 hours.
3. Overtime rate: $25.00 × 1.5 = $37.50/hour.
4. Overtime owed: 6 × $37.50 = $225.00 for that week, on top of regular pay for the first 44 hours.

The same arithmetic applies federally and in Québec — only the threshold changes (8h/day or 40h/week federal; 40h/week Québec). Swap 44 for your regime's threshold and the rest follows.

Your regular rate can never fall below the applicable minimum wage, and the minimum wage is indexed — so never rely on a figure you saw in an old article.

• Federal: the federal minimum wage exists under the Canada Labour Code, s. 178, and is indexed annually on 1 April. Check the current year's rate from the official source before you calculate.
• Ontario: the general minimum wage is set under the ESA (s. 23) and is indexed annually on 1 October. Again, use the current year's rate.

Because these values are re-set every year, this guide deliberately does not quote a frozen figure. Confirm the rate for the year of the pay period in question.

• Unpaid Overtime in Canada: The Complete Guide
• 40 or 44 Hours? The Overtime Threshold That Decides When You Get Paid More
• How to Calculate Your Overtime Pay in Ontario (Step by Step)
• Overtime Under the Canada Labour Code: A Guide for Federally Regulated Workers