Who gets statutory OT
Overtime under the Singapore Employment Act is a Part IV entitlement. That means it applies to:
- Non-workmen earning a basic monthly salary of up to S$2,600
- Workmen earning a basic monthly salary of up to S$4,500
Above those thresholds, OT is contractual, not statutory. You can still pay it — and many F&B and retail employers do, particularly for duty managers and senior service staff — but you are not legally required to under the Act.
Basic salary means the fixed monthly pay before allowances, bonuses, OT or commissions. A non-workman on S$2,500 basic plus S$300 service allowance is still entitled to OT (basic is below S$2,600). A non-workman on S$2,700 basic is not.
The 1.5x rate
OT is paid at 1.5 times the hourly basic rate. The hourly basic rate for a monthly-paid employee is:
Hourly basic rate = (12 × monthly basic salary) ÷ (52 × standard weekly hours). For a 44-hour week, divide by 2,288.
For an hourly part-timer, the OT rate is simply 1.5x their agreed hourly rate.
Worked example
A server on a monthly basic salary of S$2,200 working a 44-hour week. Hourly basic rate = (12 × 2,200) ÷ (52 × 44) = S$11.54. OT rate = S$11.54 × 1.5 = S$17.31 per OT hour. If they do 10 OT hours in a month, that is S$173.10 in OT.
The 72-hour monthly OT cap
Under MOM guidelines, OT is capped at 72 hours per month. Going beyond that requires a specific MOM exemption, granted only in limited circumstances.
For shift-heavy F&B and retail operations, this matters. A server who covers heavy peak weeks plus standby shifts can easily approach 72 OT hours by mid-month if no one is tracking. The cap is per individual worker, not per role or per outlet.
Public holiday pay
Singapore has 11 gazetted public holidays. Under the Employment Act, every covered employee is entitled to them as paid days off. The rules around working on a PH:
- If the PH falls on a normal working day and the employee works: gross rate of pay for that day plus an extra day's basic pay, or a day off in lieu.
- If the PH falls on a rest day and the employee works: the rest day rules apply for the day, and the following working day becomes the paid holiday.
- If the PH falls on a non-working day (e.g. a 5-day week worker whose PH falls on a Saturday): extra day's basic pay, or a day off in lieu.
Common error: paying "double time" on a PH and assuming that covers it. The Act says gross pay for that day plus an extra day's basic pay. Gross pay includes shift allowances, fixed components and similar pay items. Just paying 2x basic is short of what the Act requires.
Rest days and Sunday work
Every Part IV employee is entitled to at least one rest day per week — a continuous 30-hour period, unpaid (since it is not a working day). It does not have to be Sunday, but should be agreed in writing.
If an employee works on a rest day, the rate depends on who requested the work:
| Hours worked | Employer's request | Employee's request |
|---|---|---|
| Up to half daily hours | 0.5 day's pay | 0.5 day's pay |
| More than half, up to full daily hours | 1 day's pay | 0.5 day's pay |
| Beyond daily hours | 1 day's pay + 1.5x OT | 0.5 day's pay + 1.5x OT |
The distinction matters financially. Document who requested the rest-day work and keep the record.
Working Sundays
Sunday in Singapore is not automatically a premium-paid day under the Act. If Sunday is the employee's rest day (the common case), the rest-day rules above apply when they work on it. If Sunday is a normal working day for that employee, no special rate applies — except, of course, OT at 1.5x for hours beyond contracted daily hours.
Many F&B and retail operations rotate the rest day so it is not always Sunday. That is fine under the Act, provided each worker gets at least one rest day per week.
The five errors we see most
- Treating PH pay as "double time only". It is gross pay plus an extra day's basic, or day in lieu. Not the same as 2x basic.
- Calculating OT on gross hourly rate, not basic. The 1.5x is on the basic hourly rate. Allowances are not included.
- Missing the 72-hour cap by individual. Aggregating at team or shift level hides the issue. Track per worker per month.
- Not documenting who requested rest-day work. Defaulting to "employer's request" is safer for the worker but more expensive — and not always accurate.
- Treating duty managers above S$2,600 as Part IV. They are not statutorily entitled to OT. If you pay it, do so under their contract — but it is not an Act obligation.
Stop calculating OT and PH pay by hand
FlexiWork applies SG OT (1.5x), the 72-hour cap, PH multipliers and rest-day rates automatically. Hours flow from Rosta into PayOut with the right pay treatment.
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