Overtime, breaks and holiday pay: how the rules differ by state and province
The rule most people know, time and a half after 40 hours in a week, is the floor, not the law of the land. Several states and most provinces add daily overtime, required breaks, or holiday premiums. This guide collects the differences that change a crew's pay cheque. It is a summary as of October 2026, not legal advice; check the current text with the state or provincial labour office before relying on it.
The United States baseline: the FLSA
The Fair Labor Standards Act sets overtime at one and a half times the regular rate after 40 hours in a single workweek for non-exempt employees. It does not require daily overtime, does not require meal or rest breaks, and does not require extra pay for weekends or holidays. Short rest breaks of roughly twenty minutes or less, if an employer offers them, count as paid time.
Everything below is a state or province going further than that floor. Where a state rule is more generous to the worker than the federal one, the state rule applies.
States with daily overtime
• California: time and a half after 8 hours in a day and after 40 in a week, double time after 12 hours in a day, and time and a half for the first 8 hours of the seventh consecutive day in a workweek, double time after that.
• Alaska: time and a half after 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week.
• Nevada: time and a half after 8 hours in a day for employees paid less than one and a half times the state minimum wage; otherwise after 40 in a week.
• Colorado: time and a half after 12 hours in a day, 12 consecutive hours, or 40 in a week, whichever gives the larger amount.
A crew that works four tens in California earns overtime every day unless the employer has adopted a valid alternative workweek schedule. The same crew in Arizona earns none. That difference is the single most common payroll error we hear about from contractors working across state lines.
Meal and rest breaks
Federal law requires no breaks. A number of states do, and a few attach a penalty payment when the break is missed or late.
• California: an unpaid 30 minute meal break before the end of the fifth hour, a second before the end of the tenth, and a paid 10 minute rest break for every 4 hours worked or major fraction. A missed or late break owes one extra hour of pay for that day, per type of break.
• Washington: a 30 minute meal break for shifts over 5 hours, and a paid 10 minute rest break for every 4 hours.
• Oregon: a 30 minute meal break for shifts of 6 hours or more and a paid 10 minute rest break per 4 hour segment.
• Colorado: a 30 minute meal break for shifts over 5 hours and a paid 10 minute rest break per 4 hours.
• New York: a 30 minute meal break for shifts over 6 hours that span the noon hour, with a longer break for some factory work.
The record matters as much as the break. In states with penalties, the timesheet has to show when the break started and ended, not just that it was taken.
Holiday pay in the United States
No federal or state law requires private employers to pay a premium for working on a holiday, or to pay for a holiday not worked. Holiday pay in the United States comes from the employment contract, a collective agreement, or company policy. Prevailing wage projects are the exception: the wage determination for the project may set holiday rates, and those are enforceable.
Canada: a different weekly threshold in almost every province
Canadian employment standards are set provincially, with a federal code for federally regulated work. The weekly overtime threshold, daily overtime, and the list of statutory holidays all vary.
• Federal (Canada Labour Code): time and a half after 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week.
• Ontario: time and a half after 44 hours in a week; no daily overtime. Nine public holidays, with premium pay of time and a half for hours worked on the holiday on top of public holiday pay, or a substitute day off.
• Quebec: time and a half after 40 hours in a week; a 30 minute unpaid meal break after 5 consecutive hours. Construction work is covered by its own regime under the Commission de la construction du Québec, with rates set by sector.
• British Columbia: time and a half after 8 hours in a day and after 40 in a week, double time after 12 hours in a day.
• Alberta: time and a half after 8 hours in a day or 44 in a week, whichever is greater.
The daily thresholds in British Columbia and Alberta have the same effect as California's: a nine hour day earns an hour of overtime even in a short week.
Crews that cross a line
The rule that applies is the rule of the place where the work is done, not where the company is registered or where the worker lives. A crew based in Vancouver that spends Tuesday in Alberta is paid under Alberta rules for Tuesday. A roofing company in Portland working a job across the river in Vancouver, Washington follows Washington break rules on that job.
That is only workable if the timesheet records where each punch happened and the payroll calculation picks the rule set per day. Done by hand, it is where most of the errors in this guide come from.
How HourTrail applies these rules
HourTrail records the site for every punch, applies the overtime, break and holiday rules of the state or province the crew stands in, and prints the rule it used on each line of the pay statement so a foreman, a bookkeeper or an auditor can check it. Rule changes are shipped by HourTrail, not configured by the customer. The product is pre-launch; the waiting list holds a numbered spot.
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