How to Calculate Overtime in Oman (2026)

To calculate overtime in Oman, work out your hourly basic wage as monthly basic salary ÷ 30 ÷ your normal daily hours, then apply the rate the law attaches to when you worked. Daytime overtime pays that hourly rate plus at least 25%. Overtime between 9 PM and 5 AM pays it plus at least 50%. A weekly rest day or an official holiday pays 100% of your daily basic wage on top of the wage for the day itself, which is 200% of a normal day.

Those rates come from Oman's Labour Law, Royal Decree 53/2023, Article 71. They are minimums, so a contract can pay more but never less. Put your own numbers in below, then read on for the rules that decide which rate applies, including the one situation where your employer can require overtime without asking you and has to pay you more for it.

Oman overtime rates at a glance

The last three rows are the ones almost nobody covers, and they pay more than the standard rates rather than less. There is a section on them further down.

How to calculate overtime pay in Oman, step by step

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

Overtime in Oman is calculated on the basic wage. Article 71 says the employer grants "an additional wage equivalent to his basic wage calculated in accordance with the additional working hours", and it is the basic wage that carries the 25% and 50% supplements. Housing, transport, phone and similar allowances sit outside that base.

One detail worth knowing: Article 1 defines the basic wage as "the monetary consideration agreed upon between the worker and the employer in the employment contract plus the periodic allowance". The periodic increment is part of your basic wage, not an add-on sitting outside it, so it belongs in your overtime base. Everything else the same article calls the gross wage, meaning basic plus all other allowances, does not.

This is also where Oman differs from itself, in a way that catches people out on their final payslip. Overtime and gratuity run on the basic wage; annual leave and leave encashment run on the gross wage. Three payments, two different bases, one settlement. The Oman annual leave and leave salary guide works through the leave side of that split.

Step 2: Convert the monthly wage into an hourly rate

Hourly basic wage = monthly basic wage ÷ 30 ÷ normal daily hours

On a standard 8-hour day that is a divisor of 240.

The ÷30 is not a rounding convention. Article 1 of the Labour Law defines a month as 30 days for the purposes of the law, and your monthly salary pays you for all 30 calendar days, including the paid weekly rest days you do not work. That is exactly why the daily wage is the monthly wage divided by 30 rather than by the roughly 22 days you actually attend.

It matters, because the divisor is where published Omani overtime guides quietly disagree with each other:

Both look reasonable. The second treats the year as 365 days and prorates from there, which produces a slightly smaller hourly rate every single time, about 1.4% lower. The first follows the definition the law itself supplies. Our Oman overtime calculator uses month = 30 days for that reason. If your employer's payroll uses a different divisor and cannot point to a contractual basis for it, that is a fair question to ask.

Step 3: Sort the hours by when you worked them

Article 1 defines night working hours as "the time between nine in the evening and five in the morning". Not 6 AM, which some guides state. Hours inside that window carry the 50% supplement; hours outside it carry 25%.

Hours worked on a weekly rest day or an official holiday are neither: they have their own rule, priced per day rather than per premium hour.

Step 4: Apply the multiplier and add it up

Daytime hours × 1.25 × hourly rate, night hours × 1.50 × hourly rate, rest day and holiday hours × 2.00 × hourly rate. Add the three together and you have the overtime element of your pay for the period.

Worked examples

Every figure below is the output of the Oman overtime calculator on the same inputs, so you can reproduce each one.

Example 1: Daytime overtime

An administrator on an OMR 700 basic wage works a normal 8-hour day and puts in 12 extra daytime hours across the month.

Now add OMR 300 of housing and transport allowances to that package. The overtime figure does not move: it is still OMR 43.75, because the allowances are not part of the basic wage.

Example 2: Night overtime

The same employee covers 6 hours between 10 PM and 4 AM, entirely inside the night window.

• Hourly rate: OMR 2.9167
• Night rate: 2.9167 × 1.50 = OMR 4.375/hr
• 6 × 4.375 = OMR 26.25

Six night hours pay OMR 26.25 where six daytime hours would pay OMR 21.88. The window is worth checking on your timesheet.

Example 3: A shift that crosses 9 PM

This is the case the rate tables never quite answer. Our employee finishes their normal 8-hour day, then works 6 PM to 10 PM. Three of those hours are daytime, one falls after 9 PM.

Split the hours at the boundary rather than applying one rate to the whole block. Treating all four hours as daytime would pay OMR 14.58 and quietly underpay the last hour.

Note where this shift ends up: 8 normal hours plus 4 overtime hours is 12 hours, which is exactly the ceiling Article 71 sets.

Example 4: A weekly rest day

The same employee is called in for a full 8-hour day on their weekly rest day.

• Hourly rate: OMR 2.9167
• Rest day rate: 2.9167 × 2.00 = OMR 5.8333/hr
• 8 × 5.8333 = OMR 46.67

That OMR 46.67 is the whole entitlement for the day: the wage for the day itself plus the 100% supplement Article 71 requires. Instead of paying it, the employer may grant a compensatory day off, one day for each day worked.

Example 5: An official holiday on a higher salary

A supervisor on an OMR 1,200 basic wage works 8 hours on a National Day holiday.

• Hourly rate: 1,200 ÷ 30 ÷ 8 = OMR 5.00
• Holiday rate: 5.00 × 2.00 = OMR 10.00/hr
• 8 × 10.00 = OMR 80.00

Article 71 gives the weekly rest day and the official holiday the same treatment, which is why the calculator prices them in one field rather than two. If you worked both in the same month, add the hours together.

Example 6: A full month of mixed overtime

Putting the first four examples on one payslip, still on the OMR 700 basic wage:

That is on top of the OMR 700 basic salary and any allowances, not instead of them.

The exception most guides miss: overtime you cannot refuse

Article 71 closes with a sentence that gets very little attention: "In all cases, it is required for the worker to consent to perform overtime or not." Overtime in Oman is normally something you agree to, not something you are assigned. The law does not prescribe how that consent must be given, so descriptions of "written consent required by law" are reading in a formality the text does not contain. Getting it in writing is still sensible for both sides, because it is the record that settles a later dispute.

Article 72 is the exception. In two situations your employer may require overtime without your consent:

1. Annual inventory, budget preparation, liquidation, closing of accounts, and preparing for discounted sales. Capped at 15 days a year unless the competent authority allows longer.
2. Preventing an accident, repairing its consequences, avoiding actual loss of perishable materials, or meeting unusual pressure. The employer must notify the competent authority within 24 hours, explaining the situation and how long the work will take.

Here is the part that surprises people. Article 72 overtime does not pay the standard rate. It pays more:

Priced on our OMR 700 employee, four daytime hours during the annual stocktake are worth 2.9167 × 1.50 × 4 = OMR 17.50, against OMR 14.58 for the same four hours of ordinary overtime. Eight hours on a public holiday during an emergency call-out come to 2.9167 × 3.00 × 8 = OMR 70.00, against OMR 46.67 at the Article 71 rate.

Our calculator prices Article 71 only. That is the ordinary case and it covers the overwhelming majority of overtime. If your hours fall under Article 72, take the hourly rate the calculator gives you and apply 1.50, 1.75 or 3.00 by hand.

Working hours, breaks and the 12-hour ceiling

Article 70 sets the baseline: no more than 8 actual working hours a day and 40 actual hours a week. Overtime is defined against that statutory limit, not against your personal schedule. Article 1 puts it plainly: overtime is "the work which is performed outside the working hours prescribed in this law".

Two details inside Article 70 change what counts:

• The rest and meal break sits outside the 8 hours. The law requires the working day to be "interspersed with but do not include an hour per day for rest and eating". A 9-hour day at the workplace with a one-hour break is a normal 8-hour working day, not an hour of overtime.
• You cannot work more than 6 hours continuously. The break has to break something up.

Article 71 then caps the total: original plus additional hours "does not exceed 12 hours per day". On a standard 8-hour day, that leaves room for up to 4 hours of overtime.

You will frequently read that Oman limits overtime to 3 hours a day. That figure does not appear in Royal Decree 53/2023. Neither do the weekly or monthly overtime caps some HR sites quote. The law's constraint is the 12-hour daily total, and the consent requirement that sits alongside it.

Since Article 77 gives you a weekly paid rest of at least two consecutive days, the standard 40-hour week is five 8-hour days. Both of those rest days are weekly rest days for the purposes of the Article 71 rate.

Overtime during Ramadan

For Muslim workers, Article 70 reduces the maximum to 6 hours a day or 30 hours a week during Ramadan. Hours beyond that limit are additional hours, so a Muslim employee kept until the eighth hour has worked two hours of overtime, not zero.

The law does not say whether the hourly divisor changes with the shorter Ramadan day, and the answer moves the number:

The first is the better reading of a rule that makes 6 hours the working day for that month, and our calculator supports it: enter 6 in the daily hours field for the Ramadan period. It is not settled by the text, though, so if your employer applies the second and the amounts matter to you, raise it with the Ministry of Labour rather than assuming either side is obviously right.

Time off instead of overtime pay

Article 71 lets the employer choose to "grant him permission to be absent from work instead of the hours in which he performed overtime". Read the wording carefully: the cash route carries a 25% or 50% supplement, while the time-off route as drafted is hour for hour. Four hours of overtime buys four hours away from work, with no premium attached to it.

For rest days and official holidays the alternative is a day off for each day worked, and under Article 72 it becomes two rest days for each day worked on official holidays.

Compensatory time off is an alternative to payment, not an addition to it, and not a way to work past the 12-hour daily ceiling.

Common mistakes on Omani overtime

• Calculating on the gross salary. Overtime runs on the basic wage. Including allowances inflates the figure and it will not survive a payroll check.
• Leaving the periodic allowance out of the basic wage. Article 1 puts it inside the basic wage, so it belongs in the base.
• Using 6 AM as the end of the night window. It is 5 AM.
• Applying one rate to a shift that crosses 9 PM. Split the hours at the boundary.
• Counting the lunch hour as overtime. It was never inside the 8 hours to begin with.
• Assuming the emergency call-out pays the normal rate. Article 72 work pays more, not less.
• Treating the ×2.00 rest-day figure as a supplement on top of the day's pay. It already includes the wage for the day itself.
• Accepting time off in lieu without checking the arithmetic. Hour-for-hour leave is worth less than the premium you would otherwise have been paid.

When these rules do not apply to you

• Domestic workers. Ministerial Decision 574/2025 governs domestic workers and equivalent occupations separately, with its own 12-hour daily limit and up to two additional paid hours by written agreement. Article 71 is not the right test, and neither is this calculator.
• Seasonal work and specified sectors. Article 73 allows an employer not to apply Articles 70 and 71 in seasonal employment and in sectors defined by ministerial decision.
• Employment governed by a special law or system. Article 2 carves those out of the Labour Law entirely.
• A more generous contract. The 25% and 50% figures are floors. If your contract or company policy pays more, the contract governs.

Check your own numbers

Take three figures off your payslip before you argue about anything: your basic wage, your normal daily hours, and the split of your extra hours between day, night and rest days. Those three decide the entire calculation.

Run them through the Oman overtime calculator, then check the rest of your entitlements while you are there. The annual leave and leave salary calculators cover the leave side, the notice period calculator covers your exit, and the Oman end-of-service gratuity calculator prices the Article 61 award. Every tool is listed on the calculators hub.

The full text of the Labour Law is published on Oman's official decree portal: Royal Decree 53/2023. Articles 70, 71 and 72 are the ones on working hours and overtime. These calculations are estimates for guidance: for a disputed case, the Ministry of Labour or a qualified labour lawyer should see your actual contract and timesheets.

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