How Is Overtime Calculated in the UAE?

Salman Ahmed, AI Specialist based in Dubai, wrote this note. It is independent, not affiliated with MOHRE or any government body, and it is not legal advice. The cash below is the minimum in Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 for a full-time private-sector worker. I read the English text of the decree and the government portal's working-hours page on 16 October 2026. That portal page says it was updated on 12 August 2026. Where a figure is not in the decree, I say so.

Article 19 says that if the worker works more than the normal hours, the excess is overtime. The worker receives the wage for those normal hours, calculated according to the basic wage, plus an increase of not less than 25 percent of that wage. Between 10 pm and 4 am the increase is not less than 50 percent, and shift workers are left out of that night clause.

Sources we used: UAE legislation: Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, English text

How do you price an ordinary extra hour?

Use basic wage, not the package. Housing, transport, and similar allowances stay out of the sum. Article 19 calls the starting point the wage corresponding to the normal working hours, calculated according to the basic wage, then adds at least 25 percent of that wage. A contract can pay more. These examples use the minimum.

The hourly figure on this page is monthly basic wage divided by 30, then by 8. Ordinary overtime is that hourly figure times 1.25 times the hours. Article 19 does not print the 30 or the 8. A MOHRE guide, Additional Working Hours, Wages and Leaves, states the hourly wage as basic salary divided by 30 and then by 8. I could not re-download that PDF on 16 October 2026. If the file has changed, use the file. The government portal's working-hours page describes the same 25 percent and the same basic-wage basis, without printing the division.

What is the premium from 10 pm to 4 am?

Article 19(3) says overtime in that window is the wage for the normal hours, calculated on the basic wage, plus at least 50 percent of that wage. Workers who work on shifts are excluded from the clause. I did not find a third rate for them, so this page applies the 25 percent rate in Article 19(2) to a shift worker's night hours. Hours outside 10 pm to 4 am stay on the 25 percent line even if the shift runs late, unless they fall inside that window.

What do you get for a rest day or a public holiday?

Article 19(4) gives a choice when the worker works on the rest day named in the contract or the work rules. The employer gives another day off, or pays the wage of that day for a normal working day plus at least 50 percent of the basic wage for that day. Article 21 says the weekly rest is a paid day of not less than one day, and the contract or the work rules name which day it is. It is not always Friday. If a substitute day was given, the cash line for that rest day is zero.

Article 28 gives public holidays off with full pay, on days the Cabinet defines. If the worker works one of those days, the employer gives another day off for each day, or pays the wage for that day plus at least 50 percent of the basic wage for that day. The pay sentence matches the rest-day sentence, so this page uses the same 1.50 times a day's basic wage when no substitute day is given. A MOHRE guide table is sometimes read as 2.50 for a public holiday. This page does not use 2.50. I am not sure whether 2.50 means extra cash, or the day's pay already inside the monthly wage plus that extra. A payroll that uses 2.50 will not match the holiday line here.

What do the worked examples come to?

Take a basic wage of AED 6,000 and allowances of AED 2,000. The allowances are typed so you can see them, then left out. Hourly basic is 6,000 divided by 30 divided by 8, which is AED 25. A day of basic wage is 6,000 divided by 30, which is AED 200. Two ordinary hours are 25 times 1.25 times 2, which is AED 62.50. One hour from 10 pm to 4 am, and not a shift, is 25 times 1.50, which is AED 37.50. Those three hours together are AED 100.

The same two ordinary hours priced on basic plus the AED 2,000 of allowances would be higher. That contrast is not the result. Article 19 calculates the wage on basic wage. One rest day with no substitute day is 200 times 1.50, which is AED 300. One public holiday with no substitute day is the same AED 300. The two days together are AED 600. The overtime calculator runs this same function. Type your own basic wage there if these numbers are only the illustration.

What limits does the decree put on the hours?

Article 17 sets normal working hours at 8 a day or 48 a week. The Cabinet can vary that for some sectors. Time spent commuting is not working time, except for categories the implementing regulation names. Article 19 says the employer may add overtime of not more than two hours a day, except on the conditions in that regulation, and that total working hours must not pass 144 in any three weeks. A weekly total over two hours can still be lawful if it is two hours on several days. This note cannot see a roster, so it does not treat a total over two hours as forbidden by itself.

Article 15 of Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 reduces regular working hours by two during Ramadan. It also allows overtime beyond two hours when the work is needed to prevent a serious loss or a serious accident, or to limit the effects. In any case, total working hours must not pass 144 every three weeks.

Sources we used: MOHRE: Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, implementing regulation

I am not sure a Ramadan day should be divided by 6 instead of 8 when you build the hourly wage. The MOHRE guide's division uses 8, and Article 17's ordinary day is 8 hours, so the examples keep that 8. Hours beyond the shorter Ramadan day are still overtime. The portal's working-hours page says the same two-hour reduction.

Who should not use these lines?

Article 5 says a juvenile is not to work overtime, stay after the prescribed hours, or work on the rest day or a public holiday. Article 15 of the implementing regulation takes some people outside the maximum-hours rules: chairs and members of boards, supervisors who hold the employer's powers, crews of naval vessels, work that has to run continuously by shifts if the average does not pass 56 hours a week, and preparatory or complementary work that has to happen outside the establishment's normal hours. Part-time hours are the hours written in the contract. Article 17 says the employer may not demand more than those hours without the worker's written consent.

DIFC and ADGM publish their own employment rules. If the contract names one of them, do not use this total. A free zone can sit outside the federal hours rules as well. The gratuity sum, when the job ends, is a different calculation. It is 21 days of basic wage and then 30, not these hourly premiums. Read that on the labour-law gratuity note, and run the hours themselves on the calculator.

The same minimums, with your own basic wage and hours, are on the UAE overtime calculator

End-of-service gratuity is Article 51, not this hourly sum. The rules are in UAE labour law gratuity