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Normal working hours: the line before overtime starts
Overtime is time worked beyond normal working hours, so first you need to know the normal hours for the role. Under Section 23, normal working hours may not exceed 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week in total. For work that may be hazardous to health and safety, the limit is 7 hours a day and 42 hours a week.
If your company sets normal hours below the ceiling — say 8 hours a day, 5 days a week (40 hours) — hours worked beyond the company’s normal hours on a working day also count as overtime. Write the normal hours of each shift clearly in your work rules and employment contracts.
Overtime and holiday-work rates
The law separates three kinds of pay that are often confused: overtime on a working day, holiday work (work within normal hours on a holiday), and holiday overtime (work beyond normal hours on a holiday). The minimum rates are:
- Overtime on a working day: at least 1.5 × the hourly wage (Section 61)
- Holiday work — monthly-paid employees (already paid for holidays): at least 1 × the hourly wage in addition (Section 62)
- Holiday work — daily, hourly or piece-rate employees: at least 2 × the hourly wage (Section 62)
- Overtime on a holiday: at least 3 × the hourly wage (Section 63)
Get the hourly wage right first
Every rate above multiplies the hourly wage; if that base is wrong, every overtime line is wrong. For monthly-paid employees, the daily wage is the monthly wage ÷ 30 (Section 68), which you then divide by normal working hours per day.
For daily-paid employees, the hourly wage = daily wage ÷ normal working hours per day. If the role is hazardous work with 7 normal hours per day, the divisor is 7, not 8.
- Monthly-paid: monthly wage ÷ 30 ÷ normal hours per day
- Daily-paid: daily wage ÷ normal hours per day
- Use the contractual wage as the base, and check with an adviser whether other regular payments must count as wages
Worked examples
Example 1 — monthly wage 15,000 baht, 8 normal hours a day: daily wage 15,000 ÷ 30 = 500 baht; hourly wage 500 ÷ 8 = 62.50 baht; workday overtime 1.5 × 62.50 = 93.75 baht per hour. Three hours of overtime = 281.25 baht.
Example 2 — daily wage 400 baht, 8 normal hours a day: hourly wage 400 ÷ 8 = 50 baht; workday overtime 1.5 × 50 = 75 baht per hour (2 hours = 150 baht). Working a full 8 hours on a holiday pays 2 × 50 × 8 = 800 baht, and 2 more hours of holiday overtime pay 3 × 50 × 2 = 300 baht.
Example 3 — a whole week for a monthly employee on 18,000 baht, 8 hours a day: hourly wage 18,000 ÷ 30 ÷ 8 = 75 baht. This week: 6 hours of workday overtime = 6 × 112.50 = 675 baht; 8 hours of holiday work adds 1 × 75 × 8 = 600 baht; 2 hours of holiday overtime = 2 × 225 = 450 baht. Total on top of the normal salary: 1,725 baht. Overtime plus holiday work is 6 + 8 + 2 = 16 hours, within the 36-hour weekly cap.
To try your own numbers, use the free overtime calculator.
Hour caps, rest breaks and the weekly holiday
Beyond pay rates, the law sets limits your roster must stay within. These matter directly for shift planning, especially where overtime is used to plug roster gaps. For ways to plan rosters that rely less on overtime, see the 3-shift 24-hour schedule guide.
- Overtime plus holiday-work hours may not exceed 36 hours per week (Ministerial Regulation)
- A rest break of at least 1 hour after no more than 5 consecutive hours of work (Section 27)
- If overtime of 2 hours or more follows normal hours, a rest of at least 20 minutes before overtime starts
- At least one weekly holiday, with no more than 6 days between weekly holidays (Section 28)
Where overtime calculations usually go wrong
Most mistakes do not come from not knowing the rates, but from input data that does not match reality.
- Using rostered hours instead of actual attendance, after staff swapped shifts or covered for each other and the roster was never updated
- Not separating working days from holidays, so 1.5× is applied to hours that should be 2× or 3×
- Dividing by 8 for roles whose normal hours are not 8
- Paying unapproved overtime, or missing approved overtime because the paperwork got lost
- Not checking the 36-hour weekly cap until month end
Managing overtime with OrgFlow
In OrgFlow, employees request overtime from their phone, and the request goes through the approval steps your company sets up (configurable per OT type, including whether approval is needed), with a history of who approved it and when. For shift and frontline staff, check-in and check-out come from face scan + GPS on the phone, so they are actual times, not rostered ones.
OT rates are set per site, position or provincial minimum wage (1.5× by default), and holiday pay multipliers are configurable per holiday. The system pays at the rates you configure — it does not pick the legal 1.5× / 2× / 3× multipliers for you — so someone responsible should set OT rates to match your company policy and the law. Approved OT then flows into the pay run, employees see the payslip on mobile, and HR no longer has to collect overtime forms one by one.
Disclaimer
This article is general information as of 6 October 2026, based on the Labour Protection Act B.E. 2541 (1998) and related Ministerial Regulations. It is not legal advice. Laws and announcements may change, and some businesses or roles have specific exceptions. Check the latest Ministry of Labour announcements or consult a labour-law professional before applying it.