Overtime Pay and Working Hours in Saudi Arabia: Limits, Pay and Proof

Normal working hours

• Standard limit. No more than 8 actual working hours a day if the employer uses a daily schedule, or 48 hours a week if it uses a weekly schedule (Article 98).
• Ramadan. For Muslim workers, no more than 6 hours a day or 36 hours a week (Article 98).
• Ministerial variations. The Minister may raise daily hours to 9 for certain categories of work that are not continuous. The Minister may also reduce them to 7 for hazardous or harmful work (Article 99).
• Breaks. You cannot be made to work more than 5 hours in a row without a break of at least 30 minutes (Article 101).
• Weekly rest. Friday is the default weekly day off. The employer may substitute another day for some workers. The rest day must be at least 24 consecutive hours, at full pay, and cannot be replaced with cash (Article 104).
• Permitted overruns. In limited cases, the normal limits can be exceeded. These include annual stocktaking (up to 30 days a year), preventing an accident, and exceptional pressure of work. Even then, actual hours cannot exceed 10 a day or 60 a week (Article 106).

How overtime is paid

Under Article 107, each overtime hour is paid at your hourly wage plus 50% of your basic wage.

The following count as overtime:

• hours worked beyond the daily limit;
• hours worked beyond the weekly limit, where the employer uses a weekly schedule;
• every hour worked on an official holiday.

Paid leave instead of overtime pay (new in 2025)

Since 19 February 2025, your employer may give you paid time off instead of overtime pay, but only with your consent (Article 107). Article 22 bis of the Implementing Regulations sets the rules:

• You earn at least 1.5 hours of leave for each overtime hour. A higher rate can be agreed.
• The leave is normally used within 60 days of the overtime being worked, unless you and your employer agree otherwise.
• No more than 30 days of such leave can be given in a year.
• If your employment ends before you use the leave, you are paid for the remaining balance.

Proving overtime

Courts expect evidence, not estimates. Useful records include:

• timesheets and shift rosters;
• gate access or badge records;
• permit-to-work logs;
• emails or WhatsApp messages from supervisors asking you to stay;
• payslips showing what was and was not paid.

Start keeping copies now, while you still have access to them. See Documents to Prepare for a Labor Case and Are WhatsApp Messages Evidence in Saudi Courts?.

"Overtime included in salary" clauses

Some contracts say the salary covers all overtime. Articles 8 and 107 prevent a contract term from reducing the statutory overtime entitlement.

A general clause like this does not, on its own, prove that your overtime was paid. If your contract pays a fixed overtime allowance, the question is factual: compare the hours you actually worked, the statutory amount for those hours, and what you were paid. Any shortfall is the amount in dispute.

For employers

• Record hours.
• Approve overtime in writing.
• Pay overtime as a separate line on the payslip.
• If you use paid leave instead of overtime pay, get the employee's documented consent. Credit at least 1.5 hours per overtime hour, track the 60-day period and the 30-day annual cap, and pay out any unused balance when employment ends (Implementing Regulations, Article 22 bis).

Employers without hour records are in a weak position when an overtime claim is filed.