Overtime 2026: Calculation, Premiums and Thresholds Explained

When does an hour become "overtime"?

An overtime hour is an hour worked beyond the legal 35-hour weekly duration (for full time). It is calculated in principle by the week, Monday to Sunday, unless a working-time arrangement agreement uses a different reference period.

Beware: only effective working hours count. A lunch break or leave does not generate overtime. That is why reliable time tracking and an accurate hour bank are essential before you even talk about premiums.

The premium rates

The legal principle, unless a different branch or company agreement applies:

Hours in the week	Premium
From the 36th to the 43rd hour	+25%
From the 44th hour onward	+50%

A collective agreement can set a different rate, but never below 10%. Always check your collective agreement, which may provide for rules specific to retail.

A concrete example

Take an employee on 35h who works 46 hours in a busy week:

• The first 35 hours: paid normally.
• From the 36th to the 43rd (8 hours): +25% premium.
• From the 44th to the 46th (3 hours): +50% premium.

That is 11 overtime hours, 8 at +25% and 3 at +50%. Miscounted by hand, these premiums cost a lot or create a sense of unfairness. Test your own week with our free overtime calculator.

Annual quota and compensatory rest

There is an annual overtime quota (220 hours by default, adjustable by agreement). Beyond that, each hour entitles the employee to a mandatory compensatory rest, on top of the premium.

The employer can also replace the payment of overtime with an equivalent compensatory rest, if an agreement provides for it. This is where the hour bank and the working-time arrangement come into play.

The most common errors

• Counting overtime on span hours instead of effective work (break wrongly included).
• Forgetting to distinguish the 25% and 50% brackets.
• Not tracking the annual quota, and therefore missing the mandatory rest.
• Paying hours that should have fed a counter, or the other way around.

These pitfalls join our 5 mistakes in time management and the 7 labor law scheduling rules.

Automate to stop getting it wrong

Calculating overtime becomes trivial when the schedule and time tracking are linked: the tool knows the threshold, applies the right rates and flags overruns. Squadra Planning calculates all of this continuously. See our pricing and the complete working time guide.

In summary

35h threshold, +25% up to the 43rd hour, +50% after, an annual quota to watch and a possible compensatory rest. Nothing mysterious, as long as you start from hours that are actually measured and a tool that applies the rules for you.