Overtime

Overtime is time worked beyond a person’s contracted or scheduled hours.

In the UK there is no general statutory rule that overtime must be paid at 1.5 times the normal rate. Some employers pay an enhanced rate, but that is a contract, policy, or collective-agreement question rather than a universal legal multiplier. The legal floor is that average pay across all hours worked must not fall below the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage, and working time rules still apply to rest breaks and weekly hours.

For rota-based teams, overtime usually appears when someone stays late, comes in on a rest day, or picks up additional cover after a late absence. That makes overtime as much a fatigue and staffing issue as a payroll one.

Different elsewhere: in the US, overtime is often framed around the FLSA idea of time-and-a-half after a threshold such as 40 hours in a week. A UK reader should not assume that multiplier exists automatically.