40 or 44 Hours? The Overtime Threshold That Decides When You Get Paid More
The single most important number in a Canadian overtime claim is the threshold. Federal is 8h/day or 40h/week, Ontario is 44h/week, Québec is 40h/week — and using the wrong one silently loses you money.
The Three Thresholds, Side by Side
- Federal (Canada Labour Code, s. 169(1)(a)): overtime applies after 8 hours in a day OR 40 hours in a week — whichever comes first. The federal regime is the only one of the three with a statutory daily threshold.
- Ontario (ESA, s. 22(1)): overtime applies after 44 hours in a work week. There is no statutory daily threshold in Ontario.
- Québec (LNT, art. 52): overtime applies after 40 hours in a week. There is no daily threshold in Québec.
Read that again, because the trap is subtle: Ontario is the outlier at 44 hours. Federal and Québec both use 40 hours a week — but only the federal regime adds a daily 8-hour trigger.
Why the Wrong Threshold Costs Real Money
Imagine a federally regulated worker — say, an employee of an interprovincial trucking company — who is told by a colleague that "overtime starts at 44 hours." If that worker regularly does 48-hour weeks, applying 44 hours instead of the correct 40 means the employer only counts 4 overtime hours instead of 8. That is four hours of premium pay lost every single week — and, over the federal 24-month lookback, a very large sum.
The reverse error also matters. Apply Québec's 40 hours to an Ontario file and you over-state the claim by counting hours 41 through 44 as overtime when Ontario treats them as regular time. An over-stated claim is not a harmless mistake: it damages your credibility with the regulator and can sink an otherwise solid case.
The daily threshold is the third pitfall. A federal worker who does four 10-hour days (40 hours total) has worked 8 overtime hours — 2 per day beyond the 8-hour daily standard — even though the week never exceeded 40 hours. An Ontario or Québec worker doing the identical schedule has zero statutory overtime, because neither province has a daily trigger. Same hours, completely different result.
There Is No Daily Overtime in Ontario or Québec
This point is worth stating plainly because it surprises people: only the federal regime has a daily overtime threshold. In Ontario and Québec, working a 12-hour shift does not, by itself, generate statutory overtime — overtime is measured weekly (over 44 hours in Ontario, over 40 in Québec). Your collective agreement or contract may promise daily overtime, but that is a contractual extra, not a statutory floor.
First, Confirm Which Regime You're In
Because the whole calculation turns on the threshold, and the threshold turns on your regime, the very first step is answering the jurisdiction question. Are you a federal work or undertaking (banks, interprovincial transport, telecoms, broadcasting, postal, federal Crown corporations), or are you governed by the province where you work? That decision is walked through in Are You a Federally Regulated Employee?.
Averaging Agreements Can Move the Line
One complication: a valid averaging agreement can change how the weekly threshold is measured. All three regimes allow, under conditions, hours to be averaged over two or more weeks (federal s. 169(2); Québec art. 53; Ontario s. 22(2)), so that an occasional long week is offset by a shorter one. Averaging only applies where a compliant agreement is in place — otherwise the firm weekly (and, federally, daily) thresholds govern. If your employer claims your hours are "averaged," ask to see the agreement, because without a valid one the straightforward threshold applies.
Cadre
Federal — Canada Labour Code, s. 169(1): "Except as otherwise provided by or under this Division (a) the standard hours of work of an employee shall not exceed eight hours in a day and forty hours in a week; and (b) no employer shall cause or permit an employee to work longer hours than eight hours in any day or forty hours in any week."
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."
Sources: Canada Labour Code (R.S.C. 1985, c. L-2), s. 169; Employment Standards Act, 2000 (S.O. 2000, c. 41), s. 22; Loi sur les normes du travail (RLRQ, c. N-1.1), art. 52.
CTA
Check your threshold for free
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