Guide · Work · 4 min read
Hours, overtime and rest days
Who the rules on hours cover, the daily and weekly limits, overtime pay and rest days.
In plain English · by laws.sg · not legal advice· Law as at 30 Sep 2026
On this page · 5 parts
The short answer
If the Employment Act's rules on hours cover you, your contract cannot require you to work more than 8 hours in one day or 44 hours in one week, except as the Act provides.
Subject to the rest of section 38, including the higher thresholds for the arrangements in section 38(1)(d) to (f), if at your employer's request you work more than 8 hours in one day or 44 hours in one week, you must be paid for the extra work at not less than one and a half times your hourly basic rate of pay.
Who these rules cover
This guide covers the employees section 35 of the Act lists:
- Workmen who earn a salary of not more than $4,500 a month
- Other employees, except those in a managerial or an executive position, who earn a salary of not more than $2,600 a month
Overtime, bonus, annual wage supplement, productivity incentive payments and allowances are not counted in the salary. The Minister may prescribe other amounts instead of $4,500 and $2,600.
Hours of work
Except as the section provides, you must not be required under your contract of service to work more than 6 consecutive hours without a period of leisure, or more than 8 hours in one day or 44 hours in one week.
If your contract has you working 5 days a week or fewer, or fewer than 8 hours on one or more days of the week, the 8-hour limit may be exceeded, but you cannot be required to work more than 9 hours in one day or 44 hours in one week.
Except in the circumstances listed in section 38(2)(a) to (e), such as an accident, actual or threatened, you must not work more than 12 hours in any one day.
You must not be permitted to work overtime for more than 72 hours a month.
Section 38 does not apply to employees in the fire services, or to work that by its nature involves long hours of inactive or stand-by employment.
Overtime pay
Overtime at your employer's request is paid at not less than one and a half times your hourly basic rate of pay, whatever the basis on which your rate of pay is fixed.
Additional payments for overtime work must be paid not later than 14 days after the last day of the salary period in which the overtime work was done.
Rest days
You must be allowed a rest day without pay of one whole day in each week. It is Sunday or another day your employer determines.
If your employer determines your rest days, it must prepare a roster before the month begins, telling you which days in that month are your rest days.
Subject to sections 38(2) and 40(2A), you must not be compelled to work on a rest day unless your work, by its nature, has to be carried on continuously by a succession of shifts.
If you work on a rest day at your employer's request, you must be paid:
- For work of not more than half your normal hours of work: one day's pay at the basic rate
- For work of more than half, but not more than, your normal hours of work: 2 days' pay at the basic rate
- For work beyond your normal hours of work for one day: 2 days' pay at the basic rate, plus not less than one and a half times your hourly basic rate for each hour or part thereof beyond them
This does not apply to an employee of the Government or a statutory body in the essential services, who must instead be given a day or part of a day off in substitution.
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