Nova Scotia Is Lowering the Overtime Threshold to 44 Hours and Protecting Tips
On September 8, 2026, the Nova Scotia government tabled amendments to the Labour Standards Code that will change how overtime works in this province and, for the first time, put tips into law.
Two things employers need to know straight away. The overtime threshold drops from 48 hours a week to 44. And the rules change again on who qualifies, not just when.
Both take effect on April 1, 2027. That gives you roughly seven months.
What is changing
The amendments do four things.
The overtime threshold falls from 48 hours to 44 hours per week. Employees will qualify for time and a half four hours sooner than they do now.
Overtime eligibility expands. Under the current rules, the entitlement is framed around hours the employer requires. The amendments extend it to hours worked voluntarily and permitted by the employer. If someone stays late by choice and you allow it, those hours will count.
Tips and gratuities become protected. Nova Scotia is currently one of the few provinces with no specific tip protection in the Labour Standards Code. The amendments make clear that tips belong to the people who earn them.
The province gains new tools to recover unpaid earnings that employers owe to workers.
When each part starts
| Change | Takes effect |
|---|---|
| Overtime threshold and eligibility | April 1, 2027 |
| Tips and gratuities protection | April 1, 2027 |
| Wage recovery measures | Later, following stakeholder consultation and regulations |
The wage recovery piece has no fixed date. It depends on regulations that have not been written yet.
An important caveat
This is a bill that has been tabled, not a law that has passed. It still has to go through the legislature.
Government bills usually pass, and both the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour and the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia have publicly supported the changes, so opposition is unlikely to be fierce. But nothing is final until it receives royal assent. Plan for it, and confirm the details before you change anything in your payroll system.
We will update this page when the bill passes.
Who is excluded
According to Canadian Press reporting on the bill, the new protections would not apply to some workers, including those in the construction and agriculture sectors.
That is consistent with how Nova Scotia already handles those industries. Construction and property maintenance employees fall under a separate wage order with a 110 hour, two week overtime threshold, and most farm employees are already outside the overtime rules entirely. The exact scope of the exclusions will be clearer once the bill text and any regulations are published.
What this costs you
The change only affects employees who regularly work more than 44 hours in a week. If nobody on your payroll passes 44 hours, nothing changes for you.
If they do, here is the arithmetic for an employee earning $19.50 an hour.
| Hours worked in a week | Current cost | From April 1, 2027 | Extra per week | Extra per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | $858.00 | $858.00 | $0.00 | $0 |
| 46 | $897.00 | $916.50 | $19.50 | $1,014 |
| 48 | $936.00 | $975.00 | $39.00 | $2,028 |
| 50 | $994.50 | $1,033.50 | $39.00 | $2,028 |
The extra cost is smaller than it first looks, because you were already paying for those hours at straight time. Only the top-up is new.
At $19.50 an hour, straight time is $19.50 and overtime is $29.25. The difference between them is $9.75. So each hour that moves from straight time into overtime costs you an additional $9.75, not the full $29.25.
Four hours move across, which is where the $39.00 comes from: 4 × $9.75.
That $39.00 is also the ceiling. Once an employee reaches 48 hours, every hour beyond that was already being paid at overtime under the current rules, so nothing further changes. The extra cost is $39.00 a week whether they work 48 hours or 58.
| Hours worked | Extra per week |
|---|---|
| 44 | $0.00 |
| 45 | $9.75 |
| 46 | $19.50 |
| 47 | $29.25 |
| 48 or more | $39.00 |
The annual figures above assume the same hours in all 52 weeks, which is unlikely in practice. For seasonal businesses, count only the weeks that actually run long.
Remember that CPP contributions, EI premiums, vacation pay accrual and WCB premiums are all calculated on gross wages, so the true cost sits slightly above these figures.
The expanded eligibility rule matters more than the number
Most of the coverage has focused on 48 hours becoming 44. The eligibility change is arguably the bigger operational shift.
Right now, an employer can take the position that overtime attaches to hours the business required. Under the amendments, hours worked voluntarily and permitted by the employer will count too. The word doing the work there is "permitted." If an employee stays past their shift, and you know about it and allow it, that is likely to be overtime.
The practical consequence is that informal arrangements stop being safe. If your staff routinely stay late to finish up, that needs to be either authorised and paid, or actually stopped. Knowing about extra hours and saying nothing will not be a defensible position.
Between now and April, the useful exercise is to look at who actually works past 44 hours in a normal week, including the hours nobody formally asked for.
The tips change
Nova Scotia has had no statutory tip protection, which has left the treatment of gratuities to individual workplace practice.
The Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia supported the amendments, noting that clear rules align with what is already standard practice across most of the industry. That is a fair description. Most restaurants already handle tips properly, and this mainly affects the minority that do not.
About 32,500 Nova Scotians worked in accommodation and food services in 2025, which is the sector most directly affected.
If you operate a restaurant, café, bar or hotel, the sensible step now is to write down how tips are collected, pooled and distributed in your business, and check that the practice matches what your staff believe it to be. Verbal arrangements that everyone assumes they understand are exactly the kind of thing that becomes a complaint once a law exists to complain under.
Where Nova Scotia will sit nationally
Even after the change, Nova Scotia's threshold stays higher than much of the country.
| Threshold | Jurisdictions |
|---|---|
| 40 hours | Federal, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec |
| 44 hours | Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia from April 2027 |
Prince Edward Island moved to 44 hours earlier this summer. Nova Scotia is following a well established pattern rather than breaking new ground, which is one reason the change has drawn relatively little opposition.
What to do before April 1, 2027
Work out who is affected. Pull the last three months of hours and find everyone who passed 44 hours in any week. That is your exposure.
Look at hours you did not authorise. Staff who stay late without being asked are the group most likely to become newly eligible under the expanded rule.
Decide whether to reschedule or absorb the cost. For some businesses, adding a few hours to a second employee will be cheaper than paying the premium on the first. For others it will not be worth the disruption.
Check whether the exclusions apply to you. If you are in construction or agriculture, confirm your position once the bill text is published.
Document your tip practice if you take tips at all.
Make sure your payroll system can change the threshold. It sounds obvious. It is also the step people leave until the week before.
How this affects our existing guidance
Our guide to overtime rules in Nova Scotia describes the current 48 hour threshold, which remains the law until April 1, 2027. Everything in it applies today. We will revise it when the amendments pass.
Note that the amendments do not appear to introduce daily overtime. Nova Scotia has no daily threshold now, and the tabled changes address the weekly figure and eligibility rather than adding a per day trigger. Separate private members' bills proposing daily overtime have been introduced in the legislature over the past year, but those are different pieces of legislation and none has become law.
Also unchanged for now: the separate rules for managers, supervisors, IT professionals and flat rate mechanics whose overtime is calculated on the minimum wage rather than their own rate. If the amendments alter that, we will note it.
Sources
- Changes to Labour Standards Code Will Strengthen Protections for Workers, Province of Nova Scotia, September 8, 2026
- Bills tabled in the Nova Scotia legislature
- Labour standards information, Nova Scotia Labour, Skills and Immigration
- Overtime Pay, Nova Scotia Labour, Skills and Immigration
Payslips Consulting is a payroll company based in Sydney, Cape Breton, working with small and mid sized businesses across Nova Scotia. When thresholds change, we change them. Our clients send the hours and we handle the calculations, the CRA remittances, direct deposit, ROEs and year end T4s. Get a quote.
This article describes legislation that has been tabled but not yet passed, and is general information rather than legal advice. Confirm the final text before making changes to pay practices. Nova Scotia Labour Standards can be reached toll free at 1-888-315-0110.
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