Are Salaried Employees Entitled to Overtime Pay?

Salary alone does not remove overtime entitlement

Usually yes, unless a specific exemption applies. Being paid a salary, instead of an hourly wage, does not by itself remove an employee’s entitlement to overtime pay.

• Under the Canada Labour Code, a federally regulated employee who is required or permitted to work overtime is entitled to be paid at least 1.5 times their regular rate of wages, or given equivalent time off, “regardless of whether they are paid a salary or hourly wage” (s 174(1)).
• In Ontario, the Employment Standards Act, 2000 requires employers to pay overtime of at least 1.5 times the regular rate for hours worked beyond 44 in a week, or another prescribed threshold (s 22(1)). Ontario’s own policy guidance confirms that “salaried employees who are not exempt from the overtime provisions are entitled to overtime pay for overtime work.”
• In Alberta, the Employment Standards Code applies the same overtime rules to salaried and non-salaried employees alike (ss 21-22). Overtime is owed for hours worked beyond 8 hours a day or 44 hours a week, whichever is greater (the “8/44 rule”).

The entitlement turns on what the employee actually does and which industry they work in, not on whether their pay is called a “salary.”

Thresholds and rates at a glance

Where the exemptions actually bite

The entitlement disappears only where a recognized exemption applies, and each of the three jurisdictions defines that narrowly around actual duties rather than job title or pay type.

Federally, managers are excluded from the Code’s hours of work provisions, which include overtime (s 167(2)(a)). But the Government of Canada’s own interpretation guidance (IPG-049) notes that “judges and adjudicators have interpreted the term narrowly,” meaning a title alone won’t establish the exclusion.

In Ontario, managers and supervisors don’t qualify for overtime if the work they perform is genuinely managerial or supervisory. However, if they perform non-managerial tasks, they still lose the exemption unless those tasks are “only irregular or exceptional.” A manager who regularly does the same frontline work as their staff may not be exempt at all.

In Alberta, the exemption list is broader by regulation: managers, supervisors, and employees working in a confidential capacity are excluded, along with a defined list of professionals such as agrologists, architects, chartered accountants, and others named in the Employment Standards Regulation. This professional-designation carve-out is more extensive than Ontario’s, so a salaried professional exempt in Alberta may not be exempt on the same facts in Ontario.

How overtime is calculated once you’re on salary

The calculation method doesn’t change the entitlement, only the math needed to get to an hourly figure.

• In Ontario, the regular rate for a salaried employee is derived by dividing the salary earned for the work week by the number of non-overtime hours actually worked that week. Overtime is then paid at 1.5 times that derived rate for hours beyond the threshold.
• In Alberta, the salary is treated as payment only for the regular (non-overtime) hours in the pay period. Overtime hours are compensated separately, on top of the salary, using essentially the same calculation approach used for hourly employees.

Neither province treats a fixed salary as already “covering” overtime hours worked; the salary pays for regular hours only, and overtime is calculated and added on top unless an exemption applies.