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Overtime and Public Holiday Pay Calculator

Estimate overtime and public holiday pay for a BCEA-covered South African employee.

Choose how the ordinary wage amount below is stated.
Enter the ordinary wage before overtime or public holiday premiums.
Exclude Sunday and public holiday hours from this overtime figure.
Choose Yes if the employee would normally have worked on that day.

Uses the BCEA cash-pay minimums for ordinary overtime and public holidays. It excludes Sunday premiums, paid-time-off arrangements, sector or bargaining-council rules, and tax or payroll deductions.

How Overtime and Public Holiday Pay Works

For employees covered by the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), ordinary overtime must generally be agreed and paid at no less than 1.5 times the ordinary wage. This calculator treats the overtime hours as separate from any Sunday or public holiday hours. A monthly wage is converted to an hourly rate by dividing it by 4⅓ and then by ordinary weekly hours. If wages fluctuate or are partly commission-based, the BCEA may instead require a preceding 13-week reference period.

Public holiday calculation

If the holiday is an ordinary working day and the employee works, the minimum is the greater of double the ordinary daily wage or the ordinary daily wage plus the amount earned for the hours worked. If it is not an ordinary working day, the minimum is the ordinary daily wage plus the amount earned for the hours worked. An ordinary working-day holiday that is not worked is paid at the ordinary daily wage.

Coverage and exclusions

The Chapter Two working-time protections do not automatically apply to every employee. Exclusions include senior managers, qualifying travelling sales staff and employees working fewer than 24 hours a month. Above the current BCEA earnings threshold of R269,600.90 a year from 1 May 2026, the automatic section 10 overtime protection and section 18(3) non-ordinary-day public holiday protection do not apply; the section 18(2) ordinary-workday holiday rule is different. Contracts, collective agreements and sector rules may be more favourable. The general national minimum wage is R30.23 per ordinary hour from 1 March 2026, subject to listed exceptions. Check the official BCEA and the 2026 earnings-threshold Gazette before using the estimate for payroll.

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