Overtime Pay in Portugal: Rates, Rules and How to Calculate (2026)

What counts as overtime in Portugal

In Portugal, overtime is officially called trabalho suplementar (supplementary work). The law defines it as any work done outside your normal working schedule (Art. 226.º CT).

Your normal schedule is what your employment contract says: typically 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week (Art. 203 CT). Any hour above that limit, at your employer's request, is overtime. This includes staying late in the evening, starting earlier in the morning, or working on a weekend when it is not a normal working day. One more requirement (Art. 268(4) CT): the overtime must have been ordered by the employer, or done in circumstances where the employer's opposition was not foreseeable. Volunteering to stay late without being asked is not payable overtime.

Workers on a compressed hours bank ('banco de horas'), adaptability regime, or shift work may have different rules. Check your collective agreement or contact the ACT if you are unsure which regime applies to you.

The legal rates: full table

Portuguese law sets minimum supplements depending on what type of day you worked and on how many overtime hours you have already done this year. This comes from Art. 268 CT.

The right column uses an hourly rate of €7 as an example. Yours will be different, and you can calculate it below.

Two details people often miss. First, the law does not treat Sunday differently from Saturday: what matters is that the day is your weekly rest day, mandatory or complementary, and both carry the same +50% supplement (Art. 268(1)(b) CT). Second, once you pass 100 overtime hours in the same calendar year, the rates double automatically to 50%, 75% and 100% (Art. 268(2) CT, wording of Law 13/2023). Many companies are not applying this.

These are legal minimums. Your collective agreement may set higher rates. It cannot set lower ones: the clause that allowed that (the old Art. 268(3)) was revoked by Law 93/2019.

How to calculate your hourly rate

Before you can work out what you are owed for overtime, you need your hourly rate. The formula is in Art. 271.º CT:

Hourly rate = Monthly salary ÷ (weekly hours × 52 ÷ 12)

For a 40-hour week, the divisor is 173.33 (40 × 52 ÷ 12 = 173.33).

For a 35-hour week, the divisor changes to 151.67. The formula stays the same.

What goes into "monthly salary" for this formula? Only your base salary plus seniority allowances ('diuturnidades'). Meal allowances, sales commissions, holiday subsidies, Christmas bonuses, and expense reimbursements are excluded.

Real-number examples

Three overtime days in one week

Working on a Saturday

Working on a public holiday

Already past 100 overtime hours this year

How much overtime can your employer ask for?

First, overtime can only be demanded in three situations (Art. 227 CT): an exceptional and temporary increase in workload that does not justify hiring someone, force majeure, or the need to prevent or repair serious damage to the company. Overtime every week to cover chronic understaffing fits none of them.

Then there are quantity limits (Art. 228 CT):

Daily limit: on a normal working day, no more than 2 extra hours. If your day ends at 6pm, your employer can ask you to stay until 8pm at most.

Annual limit:

• Micro and small companies (up to 49 workers) → maximum 175 hours/year
• Medium and large companies → maximum 150 hours/year
• Part-time workers → maximum 80 hours/year, or the proportion of your schedule compared to full time, if higher
• A collective agreement can raise the annual limit up to 200 hours (Art. 228(2) CT)

Overtime due to force majeure or to prevent serious damage (Art. 227(2) CT) does not count towards these annual caps; it is only subject to the 48-hour average weekly limit (Art. 228(4) CT).

As for refusing: the rule is that you are obliged (Art. 227(3) CT), but you can expressly ask to be excused when you have a valid reason, such as illness, caring for a dependent family member, or studies. Put the request in writing and keep a copy. Going past the limits of Art. 228(1) is a very serious offence by the company; you keep the right to be paid for every hour you actually worked.

Time off instead of money? Only if your collective agreement says so

This is a very common confusion, and it usually costs the worker money.

The default rule of the Labour Code is payment in money (Art. 268 CT). The old regime that gave 25% of compensatory rest per overtime hour was revoked in 2012 (Law 23/2012). Today, "paying" overtime with time off is only possible if your collective agreement or a written agreement between you and the company provides for it. The company cannot impose it on its own.

Something different is the compensatory rest of Art. 229 CT, which exists on top of the payment, in two cases:

• If the overtime prevented you from taking your 11-hour daily rest between shifts, you are owed paid rest equal to the missing hours, within the next 3 working days (Art. 229(3) CT).
• If you worked on your mandatory weekly rest day, you are owed one full paid compensatory rest day, to be taken within the next 3 working days (Art. 229(4) CT).

Denying either of these is a very serious administrative offence (Art. 229(7) CT). And note: this rest does not replace the +50% or +100% supplement. You get both.

Working hours exemption: what changes

If you have a working hours exemption ('isenção de horário de trabalho', Art. 218 CT), the overtime rules apply differently, or may not apply at all.

The exemption comes in three modalities (Art. 219 CT), and exempt workers always receive a specific allowance (Art. 265 CT):

1. Broad exemption (type a, no subjection to the schedule limits): generally, extra hours on normal working days do not count as overtime (Art. 226(2) CT). The exemption is already compensated through the specific allowance of Art. 265 CT. This does not mean you can be asked to work unlimited hours without any compensation, and work on rest days and holidays is overtime even for exempt workers.

2. Partial exemption (type b, limited extra hours): You may work extra hours up to a fixed number. Hours within that limit: no supplement. Hours above that limit: paid as normal overtime.

3. Observance of normal working hours (type c): You have flexibility on start and end times, but the weekly total must be respected. Hours above that total count as supplementary work.

If you have an exemption but are not sure which type, read your contract carefully. The type (a), (b) or (c) must be stated explicitly. If it is not stated, the exemption may be invalid.

What to do if your employer does not pay overtime

If you worked overtime and it was not paid, you have three concrete options:

1. Write to your employer. Send an email asking for clarification about the amounts owed. Keep a record of everything.

2. File a complaint with the ACT. Failing to record supplementary work breaches Art. 231 CT, and not paying the supplements is a serious administrative offence (Art. 268(5) CT). The ACT can inspect the company and impose fines.

3. Claim in the Labour Tribunal. You have 1 year from the missed payment to claim unpaid wages (Art. 337.º CT). The process is simpler if you have evidence: time records, emails, building access logs, messages from your manager via Teams or WhatsApp.

Always keep: time sheets, emails where the company asked you to stay, system access logs outside work hours, and chat messages with your manager. All of these are valid evidence.

How to file a complaint with the ACT

You can file a complaint online at the ACT portal, anonymously if you prefer. The ACT has inspection powers and can require the company to correct the situation and pay what is owed.

Go to the ACT portal →

Related articles:

• Work schedules in Portugal: who sets them and how they change shows what counts as your normal schedule, the starting point for overtime
• Holiday allowance: how much do you get in 2026 uses the same base salary logic
• 22 or 25 days of holidays: how many are you entitled to covers the other side of legally guaranteed rest

This guide covers Portuguese employment law. It does not replace legal advice for specific situations. Values and deadlines updated in July 2026.