On social media groups relating to employment law and others on pay, often there are questions on individual rights to paid overtime.
This short article looks to outline the basics of the employees rights, whether the additional time should be paid or not and how the additional work time impacts employment rights under the Working Time Regulations (WTR) and whether an employer potentially faces breaching National Minimum Wage regulations (NMW).
What is overtime?
If you have normal working hours, overtime usually means any time you work beyond these hours.
Normal working hours are the hours fixed by your employment contract.
Must overtime be paid?
Simply the answer is NO – Employers do not have to pay workers for overtime. However, that is boundaried by statutory minimums
In many jobs the contracted salary may include coverage of any adhoc extra working that is required. Contracts may specify that there is no automatic right to overtime pay where the worker does more hours than contracted. Equally the contract may state extra time worked is only permitted with employer approval first. Workers are not entitled to set their own overtime rules.
The terms and conditions of employment may also outline when overtime is offered and worked and associated payment terms.
Your employment contract will usually include details of any overtime pay rates and how they’re worked out.
What about minimum pay requirements
Overtime or additional hours are hours for NMW purposes. The overall hours worked as requested by the employer would be divided into the payments received excluding any premium element of pay to determine if the employer has breached minimum pay law.
So the average pay that counts for NMW purposes for the total hours worked must not fall below the National Minimum Wage.
Can my employer insist on me working extra hours?
You only have to work overtime if your contract says so. Unless your contract guarantees you overtime, your employer can stop you from working it.
Even if it does, by law, you cannot usually be forced to work more than an average of 48 hours per week. You can agree to work longer than the WTR 48 per week- but this agreement must be in writing and signed by the worker.
Employers should not discriminate against anyone, for example by stopping some employees from working overtime while letting others have overtime.
Is there a right to premium pay for overtime?
Simply the answer is NO – there is no right to premium pay for additional hours unless part of the employers agreed scheme rules.
You’ll normally get paid at your hourly rate if you work longer hours than set out in your employment contract. Your employer will usually only pay overtime premium rates if at least one of the following applies:
- you work more than the normal working hours of full-time staff and full-time staff would get extra pay for working these hours
- you work at unsocial times (for example, late at night) and full-time staff would get more pay
So the the payment for extra hours could be:
- Zero, but subject to NMW minimum being paid overall
- Normal hourly rate, especially common for part time workers and zero hours workers until their hours reach a full week equivalent
- Premium payments where the base is used for NMW purposes and anything above is a bonus premium element. The common premiums are:
- Time and a third
- Time and a half
- Double Time (commonly used for weekends)
- Triple Time (sometimes offered for unsocial working points such as Christmas Day and other similar occasions which would not normally be worked.
- Time Off In Lieu (TOIL)
Time Off In Lieu (TOIL)
Some employers may offer time-off instead of paying for overtime. This is known as ‘time off in lieu’ (TOIL)
The worker agreed to the terms (for example, when it can be taken) with the employer.
The employer may stipulate boundaries of when TOIL is to be used and even timescales for when it may expire.
However, overall the minimum wage (NMW) rules still apply in ensuring that for all worked time the legal minimum is paid overall.
What about overtime and holiday pay?
The impact of overtime and holiday is dependent on the type of holiday pay classification being operated by the employer.
There are three lawful applications of holiday pay.
For those who work regular hours, then overtime does not increase the entitlement, but does increase the 52 paid week earnings average for at least a minimum of four weeks of the holiday entitlement being used.
For those working irregular and part years where the employer has chosen to apply holiday hours accrual or Rolled Up Holiday Pay (RUHP or RHP). then overtime has alternate impacts.
Holiday Hours Accrual
Overtime forms part of the accrual of holiday hours as the requirement is to use all hours worked with pay. When it comes to taking leave, the holiday pay rate equally includes all pay in the prior 52 weeks divided by the hours worked in the prior 52 weeks.
Rolled Up Holiday Pay (RUHP or RHP)
With RHP, the employer is required to pay a rolled up holiday top-up as a separate pay element each pay period based on all pay including any overtime payment. this may also be reflected in the RHP fir periods of sickness and other statutory payment such as maternity and paternity.
PAYadvice.UK 12/4/2025 updated 30/8/2025