How to Calculate Overtime in Kuwait (2026)

To calculate overtime in Kuwait, work out your hourly wage as monthly wage ÷ 26 ÷ your normal daily hours, then apply the multiplier for the kind of day you worked. Overtime on an ordinary working day pays that hourly rate plus at least 25%, so 125%. Work on your weekly off day pays the wage plus at least 50%, so 150%, and you also get a compensating day. Work on an official public holiday pays a double wage, 200%, plus a compensating day.

The divisor is where most Kuwait overtime calculations go wrong, and it is worth 15% of every overtime hour you are owed. Article 67 of Law No. 6 of 2010 says your dues, "including his daily wage," are worked out by "dividing his salary into the number of the actual working days without calculating therein his weekly off days." Six worked days a week leaves about 26 actual working days in a month, not 30. There is also no night-shift premium anywhere in Kuwaiti law, whatever the calculators say.

Kuwait overtime rates at a glance

Normal hours are 8 a day and 48 a week, dropping to 36 hours a week during Ramadan (Article 64). Anything beyond your normal schedule is overtime.

The divisor: why it is 26 and not 30

Nearly every Kuwait payroll dispute about overtime comes down to one number, and the law answers it directly. Article 67 sets the weekly off day at 24 continuous hours after every six worked days, then adds a second paragraph that most guides skip entirely:

The provision of the previous paragraph shall not affect the calculation of the labourer's dues including his daily wage and leaves where these dues shall be calculated by dividing his salary into the number of the actual working days without calculating therein his weekly off days, although the off days are paid days.

Read that carefully. Your weekly off days are paid, but they are not counted in the divisor when your daily wage is worked out. A six-day week over a 30-day month leaves roughly 26 actual working days. So your daily wage is your monthly salary divided by 26, and your hourly wage is that divided by your normal daily hours.

This is the same divisor Kuwait already uses for end-of-service indemnity, which is why a payslip that prices indemnity on ÷26 and overtime on ÷30 is internally inconsistent.

That is a 15.4% difference on every overtime hour. On a worker putting in the statutory maximum of 180 overtime hours a year, it is the difference between roughly KWD 563 and KWD 649.

How to calculate overtime pay in Kuwait, step by step

Step 1: Start from the wage, not the basic salary

Article 55 defines the wage as your basic pay plus "all the elements stipulated in the contract or employer's rules & regulations", and then adds that "the allowances, remunerations, commissions, grants, donations or cash privileges received by the labourer periodically shall be included within the calculation of the wage." Article 66 grants you "a wage" for overtime hours, so Article 55's definition is the one that governs it.

That means a fixed allowance you receive every month belongs in the base. This is the same reading Kuwait applies to your end-of-service indemnity, which is calculated on the same broad wage. If your employer prices overtime on basic alone while pricing your indemnity on basic plus allowances, those two positions cannot both be right.

Step 2: Convert the monthly wage into an hourly rate

Divide by 26 to get the daily wage, then by your normal daily hours, usually eight.

Step 3: Sort your hours by the kind of day

Kuwait prices overtime by the type of day, not the time of night. Split your hours into ordinary working days, weekly off days, and official public holidays.

Step 4: Apply the multiplier and add it up

Multiply the hourly rate by 1.25, 1.50 or 2.00 as appropriate, then by the hours in that category, and total the three.

Worked examples

Every figure below comes from the calculator on this page.

Example 1: Two overtime hours on an ordinary day

A worker on a KWD 600 wage (basic plus periodic allowances), working a standard eight-hour day, stays two extra hours.

Example 2: A full shift on a public holiday

Same worker, called in for eight hours on Liberation Day.

She is also owed a compensating day off. The 200% is the pay; the day is separate, not an alternative to it.

Example 3: A full shift on the weekly off day

Again, plus a compensating day.

Example 4: A mixed month

A worker on a KWD 520 wage (an hourly rate of exactly KWD 2.50) works ten ordinary overtime hours and one eight-hour off day.

The four limits on overtime, not one

Published guides almost always quote the two-hour daily cap and stop. Article 66 sets four ceilings, and they bind together:

The annual and weekly limits matter more than the daily one for anybody on a regular overtime pattern. Three days a week is 156 days a year, well past the 90-day ceiling, so a worker doing overtime three days every week is over the statutory limit by roughly August.

Overtime needs a written order, and a record

Two procedural points in Article 66 are worth knowing, because both work in your favour.

First, overtime is worked "under a written order issued by the employer," and only where it is necessary to prevent a dangerous accident, repair a breakdown arising from one, avoid a certain loss, or meet work beyond the daily requirement.

Second, the employer "shall keep a special record for the overtime work hours indicating the dates of relevant days, number of overtime hours and the respective wages" paid for them. If your overtime is disputed, that record is the employer's obligation to maintain, not yours to reconstruct. Article 66 also preserves your right to prove you were asked to work extra hours "through all methods of proof," so an absent written order does not extinguish the claim.

There is no night-shift rate in Kuwait

Search for Kuwait overtime and you will find a 150% night rate, usually given as 7 PM to 6 AM, on TimeCamp, Playroll, kuwaitcalculator.com and several HR blogs. It is not in the law. Articles 64 to 68 contain no night window and no night premium of any kind. The 150% figure those pages reproduce is the Article 67 weekly off-day rate, attached to the wrong category.

Kuwait genuinely differs from its neighbours here. Oman pays 150% for hours between 9 PM and 5 AM, Qatar between 9 PM and 6 AM, Bahrain between 7 PM and 7 AM. Kuwait prices overtime purely by the kind of day. If your employer pays a night premium, that is a contractual benefit above the statutory minimum, and welcome, but you cannot claim it under Law 6/2010.

Common mistakes on Kuwait overtime

• Dividing the monthly salary by 30. Article 67 excludes the paid weekly off days from the divisor. Using 30 understates every overtime hour by 13.3%.
• Applying a night rate. No such rate exists in Kuwaiti law.
• Treating the compensating day as the payment. For off days and holidays, Articles 67 and 68 give you both the premium and the day.
• Quoting only the two-hour daily cap. The 180-hour, three-day and 90-day limits are in the same article.
• Assuming a 48-hour week means eight hours over six days everywhere. The banking, financial and investment sector works eight continuous hours under Article 65, with a different break rule.
• Forgetting Ramadan. Article 64 cuts the week to 36 hours, which lowers the threshold at which your hours become overtime.

Check your own numbers

Three figures decide the whole calculation: your wage including periodic allowances, your normal daily hours, and how your extra hours split between ordinary days, off days and public holidays.

Run them through the Kuwait overtime calculator, then check the rest of your entitlements. The annual leave and leave salary calculators cover the leave side, the notice period calculator covers your exit, and the Kuwait indemnity calculator prices your end-of-service benefit under Articles 51 to 53. For the indemnity formula explained the way this article explains overtime, see Kuwait labour law indemnity. Every tool is listed on the calculators hub.

Kuwait's Private Sector Labour Law No. 6 of 2010 is published by the Public Authority for Manpower: Labor Law (English). Articles 64 to 68 are the ones covering working hours, breaks, overtime, the weekly off day and official holidays. These calculations are estimates for guidance: for a disputed amount, the Public Authority for Manpower or a qualified labour lawyer should see your actual contract and records.

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