Guides carrière/English
Job in Trades · 7 oct. 2026 · 10 min read

Overtime in 2026: what an extra hour really pays in each province

At $40 an hour, an overtime hour is $60 on your pay stub. You keep between $36.18 and $41.76 of it depending on the province, and in two provinces the law guarantees no premium at that wage.

PayOvertimeTax
Chaque chiffre a été vérifié à la source le 7 octobre 2026. Les sources sont à la fin.

Overtime is where a lot of tradespeople make their year. It's also where the confusion lives: when does it start, what's it worth, and why does a big overtime cheque look so heavily taxed?

Here's what the law says in each province in 2026, and what an extra hour actually leaves you once tax and payroll deductions come off.

The short version

  • Where overtime starts varies a lot. After 8 hours in a day in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the territories. After 40 hours a week in Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador. After 44 in Ontario, New Brunswick and, since June 30, 2026, Prince Edward Island. After 48 in Nova Scotia.
  • At $40 an hour, an overtime hour at time and a half is $60. You keep $36.18 of it in Nova Scotia and $41.76 in Nunavut.
  • Overtime isn't taxed at a higher rate. A big overtime cheque has more withheld because payroll treats it as if you earned that much every pay. The difference comes back when you file.
  • In New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador, the legal overtime rate is 1.5 times the minimum wage, not 1.5 times your wage. At trade wages, any premium comes from your contract or collective agreement.

When an hour becomes overtime

These are the minimums in each jurisdiction's employment standards law for most employees.

Where Overtime after Minimum overtime rate
British Columbia 8 hours a day or 40 a week 1.5×, and 2× after 12 hours in a day1
Alberta 8 hours a day or 44 a week, whichever gives more 1.5×2
Saskatchewan 8 hours a day (10 on a four-day schedule) or 40 a week 1.5×3
Manitoba 8 hours a day or 40 a week 1.5×4
Ontario 44 hours a week 1.5×5
Québec 40 hours a week 1.5×6
New Brunswick 44 hours a week 1.5× the minimum wage: $23.85 since April 1, 20267
Nova Scotia 48 hours a week 1.5×8
Prince Edward Island 44 hours a week since June 30, 2026 (48 before) 1.5×9
Newfoundland and Labrador 40 hours a week 1.5× the minimum wage: $24.53 since April 1, 202610
Yukon 8 hours a day or 40 a week 1.5×11
Northwest Territories 8 hours a day or 40 a week 1.5×12
Nunavut 8 hours a day or 40 a week 1.5×13
Federal (Canada Labour Code) 8 hours a day or 40 a week 1.5×14

The federal rules cover federally regulated work such as interprovincial trucking, rail, airlines and banks. Some industries have their own thresholds: in Ontario, road building gets overtime after 55 hours a week and work on bridges and tunnels after 5015, and in Nova Scotia most construction work gets it after 110 hours over two weeks16. If you're unionized, your collective agreement sets how your overtime is counted and paid.

The same 45-hour week, three different paycheques

Say you work five 9-hour days at $40 an hour. The law counts that week differently depending on where you are:

Where Overtime hours the law counts Gross pay that week A year of weeks like it, after tax
Nunavut 5 (over 8 a day) $1,900 $75,784
British Columbia 5 (over 8 a day) $1,900 $74,512
Northwest Territories 5 (over 8 a day) $1,900 $74,354
Yukon 5 (over 8 a day) $1,900 $74,152
Alberta 5 (over 8 a day) $1,900 $73,625
Saskatchewan 5 (over 8 a day) $1,900 $71,484
Manitoba 5 (over 8 a day) $1,900 $70,644
Ontario 1 (over 44 a week) $1,820 $70,461
Québec 5 (over 40 a week) $1,900 $68,823
New Brunswick 1, at a legal minimum below your wage $1,800 $67,023
Newfoundland and Labrador 5, at a legal minimum below your wage $1,800 $66,526
Prince Edward Island 1 (over 44 a week) $1,820 $66,418
Nova Scotia 0 (under 48 a week) $1,800 $64,858

A year of weeks like it: 52 paid weeks, taxed as your only employment income in 2026.17

Two things stand out. Ontario's 44-hour rule costs this worker $80 a week compared with Alberta, $4,160 a year before tax. And Québec pays all five hours as overtime, yet after tax the Ontario worker still keeps $1,638 more. Where you work changes your take-home more than the overtime rule does.

What you keep from an overtime hour

Where $30/h: overtime hour of $45 $40/h: overtime hour of $60 $50/h: overtime hour of $75
Nunavut $29.88 $41.76 $54.38
British Columbia $29.62 $41.35 $51.75
Northwest Territories $29.23 $40.84 $53.18
Yukon $29.06 $40.61 $52.88
Ontario $28.95 $40.51 $51.40
Alberta $28.67 $40.03 $52.13
Saskatchewan $27.62 $38.59 $50.26
Manitoba $27.52 $38.45 $46.58
New Brunswick $26.93 $37.73 $49.13
Newfoundland and Labrador $26.68 $37.43 $47.78
Québec $25.66 $36.58 $47.91
Prince Edward Island $27.16 $36.23 $47.18
Nova Scotia $26.48 $36.18 $46.51

Full time, 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, plus one overtime hour at time and a half, 2026 rates.17

Overtime lands on top of your regular pay, so it's taxed at your highest (marginal) rate. At $40 an hour in Ontario you keep 75.1% of your regular pay but 67.5% of extra pay. That gap is the whole reason overtime "feels" taxed harder.

Payroll contributions pull the other way. EI is only charged on the first $68,900 you earn in 2026, the main CPP and QPP contribution stops at $74,600, and a smaller 4% second contribution runs up to $85,00018. Full time at $40 an hour you earn $83,200, so your extra pay no longer carries EI and only the 4% second contribution. That's why in Québec an overtime hour keeps 61% of its value at $40 an hour but only 57% at $30.

Overtime isn't taxed more. It just looks that way.

There's no special tax rate on overtime. When it's paid in the same pay period, your employer withholds tax on it exactly as it does on regular pay19. The catch is how withholding works: payroll works out the tax on each cheque as if you earned that amount every pay period for the whole year20. A two-week cheque with 20 hours of overtime is taxed as if you made that much 26 times a year, so too much comes off. You get the difference back when you file your return.

Your last pays of the year can grow too. Once you reach the year's EI and CPP maximums with an employer, it stops deducting them until January21. Full time at $40 an hour, EI stops during the 44th week of the year; with regular overtime, sooner. If you change employers, the new one starts deducting again, and any overpayment comes back with your tax return.

Before you say yes (or no)

  • Read your agreement. If you're unionized or have a written contract, it can pay overtime better than the law and decides how hours are counted.
  • Banked time isn't always time and a half. In Alberta, an overtime agreement can bank 1 hour off for each overtime hour, paid at your regular rate22. Federally and in Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, banked overtime builds at 1.5 hours per hour23.
  • In Québec you can say no. You can refuse to work more than 2 hours past your usual daily hours, or more than 50 hours in a week (60 at an isolated site or in the James Bay territory). The exceptions include emergencies and danger to others' life, health or safety24.
  • Count your unpaid time. A job with less overtime but no unpaid drive can pay more for each hour of your life. Put both in the job offer comparison.

Run your own numbers

Footnotes

  1. Government of British Columbia, Working in B.C.: employment standards information sheet. Weekly overtime counts only the first 8 hours worked each day. ↩

  2. Government of Alberta, Overtime hours and overtime pay. Daily and weekly overtime are both worked out and the larger is paid. ↩

  3. The Saskatchewan Employment Act, as summarized by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Employees on a 10-hour, four-day arrangement get daily overtime after 10 hours. ↩

  4. Government of Manitoba, Overtime fact sheet. ↩

  5. Government of Ontario, Employment Standards Act policy and interpretation manual, Part VIII: overtime pay. ↩

  6. Act respecting labour standards, CQLR c N-1.1, sections 52 and 55 (LégisQuébec); Éducaloi, Les heures supplémentaires. ↩

  7. Government of New Brunswick, Minimum wage, overtime and minimum pay for reporting for work. The minimum wage rose to $15.90 on April 1, 2026. ↩

  8. Government of Nova Scotia, Overtime. Some groups covered by the general minimum wage order get 1.5 times the minimum wage instead. ↩

  9. Government of Prince Edward Island, Changes to the Employment Standards Act. The new Act came into force on June 30, 2026. ↩

  10. Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Minimum wage increase effective April 1, 2026: $16.35 an hour, overtime minimum $24.53; Labour Standards Regulations. ↩

  11. Employment Standards Act, RSY 2002, c 72, sections 6 and 7 (Yukon laws). ↩

  12. Government of the Northwest Territories, Employment standards fact sheet. In a week with a statutory holiday, overtime starts after 32 hours. ↩

  13. Government of Nunavut, Labour and employment standards. ↩

  14. Government of Canada, Hours of work: federally regulated workplaces. ↩

  15. Ontario Regulation 285/01, When work deemed to be performed, exemptions and special rules. ↩

  16. Nova Scotia, Minimum Wage Order (Construction and Property Maintenance). ↩

  17. Our calculation with the 2026 federal and provincial tax rates, CPP/QPP, EI and QPIP from the CRA payroll formulas (T4127, January and July 2026) and Revenu Québec, as a single employment income with the basic personal credits. It's the same engine as our take-home pay calculator. Union dues, pension plans and other personal deductions would change the result. ↩ ↩2

  18. CRA, Payroll deductions formulas (T4127), January 2026; Revenu Québec, Principal changes for 2026. ↩

  19. CRA, Overtime payments. Overtime paid in a later pay period is withheld with the bonus method instead. ↩

  20. CRA, Payroll deductions formulas (T4127): the formulas estimate annual taxable income by multiplying the pay for the period by the number of pay periods in the year. ↩

  21. CRA, A deeper look at the Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance. ↩

  22. Government of Alberta, Overtime hours and overtime pay. Banked time must be used within 6 months unless a collective agreement allows longer. ↩

  23. Government of Canada, Hours of work; Saskatchewan Employment Act via CFIB; Prince Edward Island; Newfoundland and Labrador Labour Standards Regulations. Banking needs an agreement with your employer. ↩

  24. CNESST, Right to refuse to work overtime. ↩

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