Understanding Overtime

Overtime work can be hard to manage, but we’re here to help!

Look After Yourself First

When taking on overtime, it’s important that you continue to look after yourself. Don’t spread yourself too thin, and make sure you weigh up the pros and cons of working additional hours, e.g, is the extra money more important to you right now or does the time that you would be giving up matter more?

To effectively manage overtime, it’s important to know yourself and your limits, and to set boundaries to ensure you maintain a work/life balance.

Checking Your Contract and Knowing Your Rights

If you’re unsure whether your employer offers overtime pay, you should look at your employment contract.

Employers are not legally obligated to pay their workers for overtime, but your average pay for the total hours you have worked should not fall below minimum wage. Therefore, even if your contract states you do not receive additional pay for overtime, you should still make sure your average pay falls above the minimum wage.

Overtime work is sometimes compulsory, so again make sure you carefully check your employment contract for any information relating to overtime.  If your contract does require you to work overtime, you usually cannot be forced to work more than an average of 48 hours a week.

However, you can choose to opt out of the 48-hour week if you wish to. To work overtime beyond this, you will need to give a written and signed agreement to your employer.

Working Out Your Pay

When discussing overtime, the phrase ‘time and a half’ often comes up. This is because many workplaces’ rate of pay for overtime is 1.5 times workers’ usual rates.

If you divide your weekly wage by your normal working hours, this is your usual hourly rate. You can then use this figure to calculate your overtime (i.e, multiplying it by 1.5 if that is your overtime rate).

Make sure you make note of any hours you have worked outside of your normal working hours, as it can be easy to lose track.  You should also always check your payslip to see whether you have been paid properly.

Overtime for Part-time Workers

Part-time workers normally get paid their hourly rate when working longer hours than is set out in their contract.

An employer may pay overtime to part-time employees if their hours exceed the normal working hours of full-time staff (and full-time staff would normally get extra pay for working these hours) or if they have worked at unsocial times (in a situation where a full-time staff member would get more pay).