Guides

Daily or weekly? How overtime is actually counted

The two thresholds, why they are not added together, what happens to unpaid breaks, and the rounding rule that quietly costs people money.

Almost every argument about a timesheet comes down to one of three things: which threshold applies, whether the break was deducted, and how the minutes were rounded. None of them are complicated. All of them are worth agreeing before the month starts rather than after.

The two thresholds

A daily threshold pays overtime on hours past a set number in one day — eight is the common figure. A weekly threshold pays overtime on hours past a weekly total, usually forty.

Where both exist, an hour is counted once. An hour already paid as daily overtime does not also count toward the weekly total, or the same hour would be paid twice. Which threshold applies, and whether both do, depends entirely on where you work and what your contract says.

Breaks

An unpaid break is subtracted before hours are counted. Nine to five thirty with a forty-five minute break is seven hours forty-five, not eight and a half — and that difference decides whether the day crosses a daily threshold at all.

The pattern to avoid is a break that exists on paper and not in practice. If people eat at their desks and keep answering messages, recording an unpaid break understates hours actually worked, and that is a problem for the employer rather than the worker.

Rounding

Rounding each day to the nearest six or fifteen minutes is normal and, done symmetrically, costs nobody anything. Rounding that always goes one way is a different thing: rounding down to the nearest quarter hour every day takes about an hour a month from someone.

If you round, round to nearest — never down — and write the rule down.

What a timesheet is for

For an employee it is a record. For a freelancer it is evidence attached to an invoice, and the more boring it looks the fewer questions it gets: date, start, end, break, a one-line note about what was done. A client who can see the shape of the month rarely queries the total.

Before you send

• Is the daily or weekly threshold written down anywhere you both agreed?
• Are unpaid breaks recorded per day rather than assumed?
• Does rounding go to nearest, not down?
• Does each line say what was worked on?
• Does the total on the timesheet match the hours on the invoice?

Worth knowing

• Statutory overtime rules, thresholds and premiums differ by country and often by sector. This describes the mechanics; your local law and your contract decide the numbers.