Overtime Pay Calculator

There is no statutory UK right to enhanced overtime pay, so it depends entirely on your employment contract. Common overtime rates are time-and-a-half, meaning 1.5 times your normal hourly rate, and double time at 2 times the normal rate. Some contracts pay overtime at the standard rate, which is perfectly lawful, and others offer time off in lieu instead of money.

What the law does require is that total pay across all hours still meets the National Minimum Wage, even where the extra hours are paid at the plain rate. Beyond that the contract governs. Typical terms give time-and-a-half for anything over 40 hours a week and double time for Sunday work or bank holidays. Manufacturing, the NHS and much of the public sector run collective agreements that set the rates centrally, so check what applies to your grade rather than assuming the general practice.

For tax purposes, overtime pay is treated identically to regular earnings. It is added to your normal pay in the period it is received and taxed at your marginal income tax rate plus National Insurance, which means heavy overtime in one period can push you into a higher tax bracket temporarily. Enter your standard hourly rate, the overtime premium and the number of extra hours to see the gross earnings, the tax and NI due on them, and what actually reaches your account.

Because PAYE works cumulatively, a large single payment can be deducted at a higher rate in the month it is paid and then settle back over the rest of the year, so the payslip is not always the final answer. Two thresholds are worth planning around. Overtime that tips your income over the £100k Personal Allowance taper, or over the High Income Child Benefit Charge threshold, costs more than the gross figure suggests. Salary sacrifice into a pension is the usual way to stay below a cliff edge when a heavy month is coming.

The type of overtime affects more than the rate. Guaranteed overtime, which the employer must offer and the employee must accept, counts as part of normal pay for holiday pay and statutory maternity pay. Voluntary overtime, which you can refuse, also counts as normal pay where it is worked consistently, a position built through Bear Scotland in 2014, Lock v British Gas in 2016 and Williams v Brunel University in 2017. Non-guaranteed overtime that is offered only occasionally sits outside those calculations.

Hours themselves are capped. The Working Time Regulations 1998 limit work to 48 hours per week averaged over 17 weeks, though workers can opt out in writing, which remains legal in the UK after Brexit. Under-18s, transport workers, who have separate rules of their own, security guards and doctors-in-training cannot opt out. Rest requirements stand regardless, at 11 hours between shifts and 24 hours off each week, or 48 hours across 2 weeks. Many office workers sign the opt-out without registering it, because the clause sits inside the employment contract.