UAE OvertimeCalculator
Estimate overtime pay for day work, night work from 10 pm to 4 am, and weekend or holiday days, using Article 19.
- Day +25%, night +50%
- Weekend and holiday work
- Checks the 2-hour daily limit
- Free, no sign-up
Overtime pay for the month
Free, instant, nothing is stored
An estimate of the legal minimum from the formula in the law. Your contract may pay more, and the way your employer sets the hourly rate may differ.
Your estimate
Overtime pay for the month, on top of basic salary
About this calculator
This UAE overtime calculator estimates overtime pay under Article 19 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021. Overtime is paid at the basic hourly wage plus at least 25 per cent, or plus at least 50 per cent between 10 pm and 4 am. Work on a weekend or public holiday is paid at the day’s wage plus 50 per cent of basic, if no day off is given instead.
UAE overtime rates under Article 19
The labour law sets minimum increases on the basic wage. Employers can pay more by contract, never less.
| Situation | Pay rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Overtime beyond normal hours | Hourly basic wage plus at least 25% | Article 19(2) |
| Overtime between 10 pm and 4 am | Hourly basic wage plus at least 50%. Shift workers are excluded from this clause | Article 19(3) |
| Work on the contract weekend | Another day off, or that day’s wage plus at least 50% of basic wage | Article 19(4) |
| Work on a public holiday | Another day off for each day worked, or that day’s wage plus at least 50% of basic wage | Article 28(2) |
- Work out your hourly basic rate: monthly basic ÷ 30 ÷ normal hours per day.
- Multiply daytime overtime hours by the hourly rate and by 1.25.
- Multiply night overtime hours (10 pm to 4 am) by the hourly rate and by 1.5.
- For each weekend or holiday day paid in cash, take the daily basic wage and add 50%, which is 1.5 times the daily basic.
- Add the lines. This is the extra pay on top of your normal salary.
UAE overtime worked examples
The table applies the formula with a 30-day month. It is our arithmetic from the law, not a figure from any ministry.
| Basic salary | Normal hours | Case | Overtime pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| AED 6,000 | 8 hours | 10 daytime overtime hours | AED 312.50 |
| AED 6,000 | 8 hours | 4 night hours (10 pm to 4 am) | AED 150.00 |
| AED 6,000 | 8 hours | 1 weekend day worked, paid in cash | AED 300.00 |
| AED 9,000 | 8 hours | 12 day hours, 2 night hours, 1 weekend day, 1 holiday | AED 1,575.00 |
| AED 4,500 | 9 hours | 9-hour day, 8 overtime hours | AED 166.67 |
Limits on overtime
- Two hours a day. The employer can ask for overtime up to two hours a day, and not more except under the Implementing Regulation’s conditions (Article 19(1)).
- 144 hours in 3 weeks. Total working hours cannot exceed 144 hours in any three weeks (Article 19(1)).
- Two weekend days in a row. A worker cannot be ordered to work more than two consecutive weekend days, except day workers (Article 19(5)).
Overtime in Ramadan
During Ramadan the portal says normal working hours are reduced by two hours a day, with no cut in regular wages. We found no official statement on whether work beyond the reduced day counts as overtime. If you want to test it, enter the reduced number of normal hours, and see our Ramadan 2027 guide for the expected dates and the working-hours rule.
Assumptions this calculator makes
- Hourly rate. We use monthly basic ÷ 30 ÷ normal hours per day. The law refers to the wage for normal hours and does not print this divisor.
- Basic wage only. Article 19 bases the increase on the basic wage, so allowances are not included.
- Legal minimums. We apply the smallest increases the law allows. A contract can pay more.
- Cash only for weekend and holiday days. If you took a compensating day off, leave those boxes at zero.
- Executives and excluded categories. Article 20 lets the Implementing Regulation exclude some categories of worker from the working-hours rules. We did not read that list.
Is it overtime? Checks before you claim
Most overtime disputes start before any sum is done: what counts as normal hours, whether a break counts, and whether the job is covered at all. The labour law answers the first two directly.
| Check | What the law says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Normal hours | A maximum of 8 hours a day or 48 hours a week | Article 17(1) |
| Breaks | No more than 5 consecutive hours without a break of at least an hour in total, and breaks are not counted as working hours | Article 18 |
| Commute | Travel between home and the workplace is not working time, with exceptions set by the Implementing Regulation | Article 17(3) |
| Who is covered | The private sector. Government employees, the armed forces and police, and domestic workers are outside the decree-law | Article 3 |
| Excluded categories | The Implementing Regulation defines categories of workers who may be excluded from the working-hours rules | Article 20 |
What “8+1 hours” means
Offer letters often say a worker’s hours are “8+1”. A r/dubai poster described that wording in March 2026, in a thread that drew 176 upvotes.
“In my offer letter the working hours were mentioned as 8+1 hours.”r/dubai, March 2026 (176 upvotes). A single account, not an official source.
Article 18 says breaks are not counted as working hours, so an “8+1” day reads as 8 working hours plus a one-hour break, which makes the day on site 9. Overtime starts after the 8 working hours, which is why the tool asks for normal working hours rather than hours at the office. If your contract counts the break as work, enter 9.
Keep a simple log
The hard part of an overtime claim is proving the hours. A daily log makes the calculator’s inputs easy to total.
| Date | Start | Finish | Break | Normal hours | Overtime, day | Overtime, 10 pm to 4 am | Weekend or holiday? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
- Write the date, start, finish and break each day.
- Subtract the break and the normal hours to get the overtime hours.
- Split any hours between 10 pm and 4 am into the night column.
- Total each column at month end and enter the totals above.
- Check the average: more than two overtime hours a day is beyond the limit the law sets (Article 19(1)).
If overtime is not paid
Raise it with the employer in writing and attach the log and the calculator result. If it is still unpaid, the route is a complaint to MOHRE, which Article 54 describes as an attempt at amicable settlement followed by referral to court. Our MOHRE complaint guide covers the channels. Overtime also counts as part of the final settlement: one r/dubai poster in October 2026 listed unpaid Ramadan overtime among the sums a former employer still owed.
UAE overtime questions
How is overtime calculated in the UAE?
Overtime is paid at the wage for normal hours, calculated on the basic wage, plus at least 25 per cent (Article 19(2)). Between 10 pm and 4 am the increase is at least 50 per cent (Article 19(3)).
Is there a maximum number of overtime hours?
Article 19(1) allows overtime up to two hours a day and caps total working hours at 144 hours in three weeks.
What if I work on a Friday or Saturday weekend?
Under Article 19(4) you are given another day off or paid that day’s wage plus at least 50 per cent of the basic wage.
What if I work on a public holiday?
Article 28(2) gives another day off for each day worked or the day’s wage plus at least 50 per cent of the basic wage.
Does overtime include allowances?
No. The increases are applied to the basic wage under Article 19.
Sources and what we could not confirm
On 25 October 2026 we read the English text of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the u.ae asset server, which marks it as not an official translation. Articles 19, 20 and 28 are summarised from that text. The Ramadan point comes from the u.ae Ramadan page, updated on 28 September 2026.
- We did not read the Implementing Regulation, which sets the exceptions to the two-hour limit and lists excluded workers.
- The hourly-rate divisor is our assumption.
- We found no official ruling on overtime during Ramadan.