Overtime and Weekend Rate Calculator
This weekend rate calculator works out what a job's overtime or weekend hours actually cost, then lets you decide separately how much of that extra cost to add to the customer's price.
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Leave an honest Google reviewReviews are optional. Please only review based on your genuine experience.Two different questions, answered separately
"What does this overtime cost me?" and "What do I charge for it?" are not the same question.
Most overtime calculators only really answer the first one — and even then, only from the employee's side.
This calculator keeps the two apart on purpose. First it works out what a Saturday, Sunday, bank-holiday or evening-overtime rate actually costs above the standard hourly rate for the hours worked. Then, in a separate step, it works out how much of that extra cost gets added to the customer's price, and how much comes out of margin.
Why not just use a time and a half calculator?
Search for an overtime pay calculator and almost everything that comes back is built for a different job: an employee working out what they will be paid for a shift, or an HR team working out what they owe someone. A few HR-vendor tools frame it from the employer's side, but they still stop at the pay-out figure.
None of them go the extra step a trade business needs — separating the extra cost of the overtime hours from the standard-rate cost already built into the job, then deciding what that extra cost adds to what the customer pays. That is the gap this page fills.
A worked example
A tradesperson costing £18.00 an hour, on a job that has to be finished on a Saturday.
Standard rate £18.00, Saturday rate at 1.5× is £27.00. Four hours at that rate costs £108.00 in total — but the extra cost, the premium, is £36.00. The other £72.00 is the standard-rate portion a normal job would have priced in anyway.
Passing the full premium on at 100% means a £36.00 uplift to the customer and £0.00 absorbed by the business.
The same job on a Sunday at 2.0× for 6 hours gives a £120.00 premium. Choosing to pass on only half means the customer sees a £60.00 uplift and the business absorbs £60.00 — a deliberate pricing choice, made visible rather than buried in a bigger total.
Passing on the premium — or not
There is no single right answer to how much of an overtime premium should reach the customer. Some build it fully into the price of any job needing weekend or evening work; others absorb it to stay competitive.
This calculator supports all three: pass on 0% and the business absorbs the full premium; pass on 100% and the customer covers exactly the extra cost; pass on more than 100% and the uplift includes a margin on top of covering the cost. Whichever is chosen, the split is shown clearly rather than folded into one number.
Does UK law require a higher rate for overtime or weekend work?
No. There is no general legal requirement in the UK to pay a higher rate for overtime, Saturday, Sunday or bank-holiday work — it is a matter of what is agreed in the contract of employment, not a statutory entitlement.
The one legal floor that does apply is that average pay across the pay reference period, overtime included, must not fall below the National Minimum or Living Wage. Whatever rate is set, it is worth checking it against the current contract and against that minimum-wage floor.
How this fits with the other calculators
This page assumes a standard hourly rate rather than building one.
Employee True Cost
Works out the fully loaded hourly cost of an employee — a natural starting point for the standard rate used here.
Site Labour Uplift
Adjusts labour for site conditions like access or height — a different kind of uplift to these time-based rates.
Overtime and Weekend Rate
This page. What the extra hours cost, and how much of that reaches the customer.
Turn the premium into a quote line that sticks
FieldHive keeps the enquiry, quote, job, invoice and payment connected, so an agreed weekend uplift reaches the invoice instead of being forgotten.
Build the supporting figures
Use these alongside the weekend rate calculator.
Employee True Cost Calculator
Work out the fully loaded hourly cost that feeds the standard rate here.
Calculate true cost →Site Labour Uplift Calculator
Adjust labour for access, height and site conditions — a different kind of uplift.
Review the site uplift →Trade Call-Out Charge Calculator
Price an emergency or out-of-hours call-out rather than a full job.
Set a call-out charge →Overtime and weekend rate questions
Quick answers to the questions people ask most.
Price the weekend work before you commit to it
See what the overtime actually costs, decide what the customer pays, and keep the two apart. FieldHive keeps the quote, job and invoice connected.
