Overtime Pay Calculator Singapore: MOM Rules for Employers (2026)

By Lucas Seah, Founder of Excellence Singapore Group | Last Updated: October 2026

In Singapore, overtime pay is compulsory only for employees covered by Part 4 of the Employment Act: workmen earning a basic salary of up to S$4,500 a month, and other employees, except managers and executives, earning up to S$2,600. For them, MOM requires at least 1.5 times the hourly basic rate, which for a monthly-rated employee is 12 x the monthly basic salary / (52 x 44). Overtime is capped at 72 hours a month and must be paid within 14 days after the end of the salary period. Use the overtime calculator below to check coverage and work out overtime, rest-day and public holiday pay for one employee.

Overtime calculator for employers

Enter the employee’s basic salary and this month’s hours. The results update as you type.

The calculator uses the Employment Act formulas and matches MOM's own overtime, rest-day and public holiday calculators to the cent. It covers full-time, monthly-rated employees. For the employee's CPF and take-home pay in a month with overtime, add the overtime pay to the monthly gross salary in our take-home salary calculator. If the employee joined, left or took no-pay leave that month, pro-rate the salary itself with our incomplete month salary calculator, which uses gross pay rather than basic pay.

Key Takeaways

• Overtime pay is compulsory only under Part 4: workmen on up to S$4,500 basic and non-workmen on up to S$2,600, never managers or executives.
• The minimum is 1.5 times the hourly basic rate: 12 x basic salary / (52 x 44) for monthly-rated staff.
• Overtime is capped at 72 hours a month and the working day at 12 hours, unless MOM grants an exemption.
• A rest day worked at your request costs 1 or 2 days' basic pay and a public holiday worked an extra day's basic pay, plus overtime for hours beyond the normal day on either.
• Pay overtime within 14 days after the salary period, itemise it on the payslip and include it in CPF wages.

Who is entitled to overtime pay?

Part 4 of the Employment Act sets the rules on hours of work, overtime and rest days, and it applies only to the employees in the first and third rows below (Employment Act, section 35).

Three points decide most cases:

• The salary test uses basic salary. Basic salary leaves out overtime, bonuses, the annual wage supplement, productivity incentives and all allowances (MOM). A clerk on S$2,400 basic plus S$400 of allowances is still covered.
• A workman is someone whose work is mainly manual. That includes people who operate or maintain commercial passenger vehicles, supervisors who do manual work for more than half their working time, and every job in the Act's First Schedule: cleaners, construction workers, labourers, machine operators and assemblers, metal and machinery workers, train, bus, lorry and van drivers, train and bus inspectors, and workmen on piece rates at the employer's premises.
• Managers and executives are outside Part 4 at any salary. MOM describes them as employees with executive and supervisory functions, such as hiring, discipline, appraisals and running the business, and includes professionals whose terms are like those of managers.

The Act covers local and foreign employees alike, so a Work Permit holder doing manual work is a workman like any local worker. It does not cover seafarers, domestic workers, civil servants or statutory board employees, and overtime rules apply to employees, not contractors (see our guide to employee vs contractor status). For employees outside Part 4, overtime is whatever the employment contract says.

How to calculate overtime pay

The Employment Act sets overtime pay at not less than one and a half times the employee's hourly basic rate of pay. MOM's formula is:

Overtime pay = hourly basic rate x 1.5 x overtime hours

The hourly basic rate depends on how the employee is paid (Employment Act, Fourth Schedule):

For monthly-rated staff, the 52 x 44 divisor is fixed: it does not change with the contract's weekly hours or the number of working days in the month. Here are the rates at common salaries:

Swipe sideways to see the full table →

Salaries above S$2,600 are covered only for workmen. Pay for 10 hours is worked out on the unrounded rate, so it can differ by a cent from 10 times the rate shown.

What counts as overtime. MOM treats work beyond the contractual hours, excluding breaks, as overtime. Contractual hours can be up to 9 hours a day and 44 a week for a week of 5 days or fewer, or 8 hours a day and 44 a week for a longer week; MOM also allows alternate-week patterns and 12-hour shifts that average 44 hours a week. Overtime counts by the day as well as by the week: if the contract says 8 hours a day and 40 a week, the 9th hour of any day and the 41st hour of the week are overtime. Overtime pay applies when the employer requires the extra work, and MOM asks employers to communicate their overtime policies clearly.

Round once, at the end. MOM's overtime calculator works from the unrounded hourly rate and rounds only the final amount to the cent: a non-workman on S$2,600 who works 2 hours of overtime gets S$40.91. MOM's web page quotes the same case with the hourly rate cut to S$13.60, which gives S$40.80. The calculator above follows MOM's calculator and the Act's formula, which give the higher, exact figure.

Overtime limits: 12 hours a day and 72 hours a month

Employees covered by Part 4 must not work more than 12 hours a day, except in emergencies such as an accident, urgent work on machinery or plant, or work essential to the life of the community. They also must not work more than 72 overtime hours a month (Employment Act, section 38). An employer that needs longer hours (up to 14 a day, or more than 72 overtime hours a month) must apply to MOM for an overtime exemption at least 3 months ahead. MOM takes 30 working days after a complete application, and expects the employer to have briefed employees on their overtime entitlements, obtained union consent if it is unionised, and had its risk register endorsed by an approved workplace safety and health auditor.

Going over the limit does not cancel the pay: the 1.5 times rate applies to every overtime hour worked. Normal hours worked on a rest day or public holiday do not count towards the 72 hours, but hours beyond the usual daily hours on those days do (MOM).

Worked example: overtime and rest-day pay for a workman

A workman earns a basic salary of S$2,400 a month on a 5.5-day week. In October he works 20 hours of overtime and, at your request, a full rest day within his normal hours. These are the calculator's default figures:

Pay the S$201.40 of rest-day pay with October's salary, within 7 days after the end of the salary period, and the S$377.62 of overtime within 14 days: only overtime gets the longer deadline. The payslip shows 20 overtime hours and S$377.62 of overtime pay, with the S$201.40 as rest-day pay.

If he had also worked on a public holiday, you would add an extra day's basic pay of S$100.70, plus overtime for any hours beyond his normal day.

Rest day and public holiday pay

Work on a rest day

Part 4 employees get one rest day a week: a whole unpaid day, midnight to midnight, which can be any day of the week, with a monthly roster when it is not a Sunday. You cannot compel an employee to work on a rest day except for continuous shift work or emergencies (Employment Act, section 37). When rest-day work does happen, the pay depends on who asked for it (MOM):

A day's basic pay for a monthly-rated employee is 12 x monthly basic salary / (52 x average working days a week) (MOM). Normal hours mean the agreed usual daily hours, or 8 hours if none were agreed. Two rules catch employers out. For Part 4 employees, you cannot give time off instead of rest-day pay when you asked for the work. And hours beyond the normal day on a rest day are paid at 1.5 times the hourly basic rate for each hour or part of an hour, so 20 extra minutes count as a full hour.

Work on a public holiday

Every employee covered by the Employment Act is entitled to 11 paid public holidays a year. The monthly salary already pays for the holiday, so an employee who works on one gets an extra day's salary at the basic rate, plus overtime for hours beyond the normal day (Employment Act, section 88):

By agreement, you can swap the holiday for another working day. Time off in lieu instead of the extra day's pay is allowed only for employees outside Part 4, for a number of hours you agree with the employee. If you cannot agree, you pay the extra day's basic pay, or give 4 hours off for up to 4 hours worked and a full day off for more.

Employees outside Part 4 and part-time staff

For managers, executives, workmen earning more than S$4,500 and non-workmen earning more than S$2,600, the Act sets no overtime rate, no 72-hour cap and no rest-day pay: the contract decides. Public holiday rules still apply to them, as to every employee the Act covers. If the contract promises overtime, write down the rate and how it is worked out, and apply it the same way every month.

Part-time employees, who work fewer than 35 hours a week, follow the Employment of Part-Time Employees Regulations. MOM's rule is that hours beyond the part-timer's own daily hours are paid at the hourly basic rate until they pass a comparable full-time employee's normal hours, and at 1.5 times after that. In MOM's example, a part-timer who normally works 4 hours a day at S$5 an hour, beside full-timers on 8 hours, works 9 hours: the 4 extra hours up to the full-time day earn S$20 and the ninth hour S$7.50, so the overtime pay is S$27.50.

Common overtime mistakes employers make

1. Testing coverage on gross pay. The S$2,600 and S$4,500 limits use basic salary, so allowances never take an employee out of Part 4.
2. Using the wrong divisor. Dividing the salary by the hours worked in a particular month gives a rate the Act does not use. For monthly-rated staff the minimum always uses 12 x basic salary / (52 x 44); if the contract promises a higher rate, such as one based on a 40-hour week, pay that rate.
3. Starting overtime at 44 hours. If the contract sets fewer hours, overtime starts where the contract's hours end.
4. Offering time off instead of pay. For Part 4 employees, MOM is clear that time off cannot replace overtime pay.
5. Paying rest-day rates on the wrong day. If an employee's rest day is a weekday, Sunday is a normal working day paid at the normal rate, not a rest day. The rostered rest day is the one that earns rest-day pay.
6. Paying late or leaving it off the payslip. Salary, including rest-day and public holiday pay, is due within 7 days after the salary period, and only overtime gets 14 days (Employment Act, section 21). The payslip must show the overtime hours and pay.

How overtime flows into payroll

1. Record the hours. For employees covered by the Act, employment records must include working hours, with meal and tea breaks, kept for the latest two years.
2. Sort the month's hours. Separate overtime hours, rest days and public holidays worked. Hours beyond the normal day on a rest day or public holiday go into overtime and count towards the 72-hour limit.
3. Work out the pay with the formulas above, or with the calculator.
4. Itemise the payslip. MOM's itemised payslip rules require the overtime hours worked, the overtime pay and the overtime period if it differs from the salary period; rest-day and public holiday pay appear as additional payments. Our guide to itemised payslips and key employment terms has the full checklist.
5. Include it in CPF. CPF is payable on overtime pay. CPF Board asks you to split overtime by the calendar month it was worked: it counts as Ordinary Wages for that month if it is payable by the 14th of the following month, and as Additional Wages otherwise. Our guide to the 2026 CPF contribution rates has the rates.
6. Recheck SDL. The Skills Development Levy is 0.25% of total wages, from S$2 to S$11.25 per employee, so a month with heavy overtime can raise it. Our SDL calculator works it out together with the SHG deduction.

For the rest of the monthly duties, see our payroll compliance checklist.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is entitled to overtime pay in Singapore?

Under the Employment Act, overtime pay is compulsory for employees covered by Part 4: workmen earning a basic monthly salary of S$4,500 or less, and non-workmen earning S$2,600 or less who are not managers or executives. Basic salary leaves out allowances, overtime, bonuses and the annual wage supplement. For everyone else, including all managers and executives, overtime pay depends on what the employment contract says.

Can I give time off instead of overtime pay?

Not to employees covered by Part 4 of the Employment Act. MOM says the employer cannot substitute overtime pay with time off: overtime must be paid at no less than 1.5 times the hourly basic rate, within 14 days after the end of the salary period. The same applies to rest-day work you ask for. For employees outside Part 4, time off in lieu depends on the contract.

Do I have to pay overtime I did not approve?

MOM says overtime pay applies only if the employer requires the employee to work beyond normal working hours, and it encourages employees to get approval first to avoid disputes. Set out your overtime policy clearly, as MOM advises, and keep accurate time records: for employees the Act covers, employment records must include working hours, with meal and tea breaks.

Can I require an employee to work on a rest day?

Only in limited cases. Under section 37 of the Employment Act, an employee must not be compelled to work on a rest day unless the work runs continuously in shifts, or in emergencies such as an accident, urgent work on machinery or work essential to the community. If an employee works a full rest day at your request, pay 2 days' basic pay, plus overtime for hours beyond the normal day.

Is it legal to work 12 hours a day in Singapore?

Yes, but 12 hours is the ceiling for employees covered by Part 4 of the Employment Act, except in emergencies such as an accident or urgent work on machinery or plant. An employer that needs staff to work more than 12 hours a day, up to 14, or more than 72 overtime hours a month, must apply to MOM for an overtime exemption. Hours beyond the contract are paid as overtime.

Is CPF payable on overtime pay?

Yes. CPF Board treats overtime pay as wages. Apportion it to the calendar month in which the overtime was worked: it counts as Ordinary Wages for that month if it is payable by the 14th of the following month, and as Additional Wages otherwise. For example, April overtime payable on 10 May is April's Ordinary Wages; payable on 30 May, past the Employment Act's 14-day deadline for an April salary period, it is May's Additional Wages.

Let us run overtime through your payroll

Overtime is where payroll errors start: the wrong divisor, a missed rest day, a late payment or an overtime line missing from the payslip. Our payroll service processes your monthly salaries, including overtime, rest-day and public holiday pay, generates itemised payslips and handles CPF, SDL and SHG, from S$30 per employee a month. Year-end IR8A filing and IR21 tax clearance are charged separately, per employee, and a managed payroll service and add-on modules (leave, claims, attendance) are quoted separately. For a fuller picture of costs, see our payroll outsourcing cost guide. To get started, talk to us.