Reference

Weekly overtime thresholds, by country.

Seven jurisdictions, from Ghana at 40 hours a week to Kenya at 52, each with the statute it comes from. These are the same thresholds Formclock checks a schedule against before it publishes, read from the rule packs the scheduler runs.

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The table

What each jurisdiction allows.

Ordered by weekly hours, because the divergence is the point. A single global setting cannot serve an operator running sites in more than one of these.

Maximum weekly hours, daily rest, break requirements, maximum consecutive days and maximum shift length, by jurisdiction, with the statute for each.
Jurisdiction	Weekly hours	Daily rest	Break	Max consecutive days	Max shift
US (federal baseline)Commencement date not yet sourced	40hFLSA 29 U.S.C. §207(a) — overtime after 40h/week	10hFatigue-management best practice; predictive-scheduling laws mandate 10–11h in several jurisdictions	30 min after 6hMeal-period statutes (e.g. CA Labor Code §512) — 30 min over 5–6h	6 daysDay-of-rest statutes (e.g. NY Labor Law §161) — one day off in seven	12hOSHA fatigue guidance; common CBA and state maximums
GhanaIn force since 2003-10-08 · checked 2026-08-12	40hLabour Act 2003 (Act 651), s.33: maximum hours of work of eight hours a day or forty hours a week	12hLabour Act 2003 (Act 651), s.40: daily continuous rest of at least 12 hours between two consecutive working days	Not modelled	6 daysLabour Act 2003 (Act 651), s.42: weekly rest of at least 48 consecutive hours in every seven days	Not modelled
South AfricaIn force since 1998-12-01 · checked 2026-08-12	45hBasic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997, s.9: ordinary hours of work limited to 45 per week	12hBasic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997, s.15(1)(a): daily rest period of at least 12 consecutive hours between shifts	60 min after 5hBasic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997, s.14: one-hour meal interval after five continuous hours of work	6 daysBasic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997, s.15(1)(b): weekly rest period of at least 36 consecutive hours	Not modelled
United KingdomIn force since 1998-10-01 · checked 2026-08-12	48hWorking Time Regulations 1998, reg 4 — 48h average weekly limit over a 17-week reference period; reg 5 — individual opt-out	11hWorking Time Regulations 1998, reg 10 — 11 consecutive hours' rest in each 24-hour period	20 min after 6hWorking Time Regulations 1998, reg 12 — 20-minute rest break where daily working time exceeds 6 hours	6 daysWorking Time Regulations 1998, reg 11 — 24 uninterrupted hours' rest per 7-day period	12hOperational cap implied by WTR 1998 reg 10 (11h daily rest); HSE fatigue and shift-work guidance (HSG256)
European Union / EEAIn force since 2004-08-02 · checked 2026-08-12	48hDirective 2003/88/EC, Art 6(b) — 48h average weekly limit incl. overtime; Art 16(b) — reference period up to 4 months	11hDirective 2003/88/EC, Art 3 — minimum daily rest of 11 consecutive hours per 24-hour period	20 min after 6hDirective 2003/88/EC, Art 4 — rest break where the working day exceeds 6 hours; duration set by national law or collective agreement	6 daysDirective 2003/88/EC, Art 5 — minimum uninterrupted rest of 24 hours per 7-day period, in addition to the 11 hours' daily rest	12hOperational cap implied by Directive 2003/88/EC Art 3 (11h daily rest); national law may be stricter (e.g. German ArbZG §3)
NigeriaIn force since 1971-08-01 · checked 2026-08-12	48hLabour Act, Cap L1, s.13: normal hours fixed by agreement or custom; 48-hour week is the customary overtime basis	Not modelled	60 min after 6hLabour Act, Cap L1, s.13(1): rest interval(s) of at least one hour in aggregate where a worker is at work six hours or more	6 daysLabour Act, Cap L1, s.13(9): one rest day of at least 24 consecutive hours in every seven-day period	Not modelled
KenyaIn force since 2008-06-02 · checked 2026-08-12	52hRegulation of Wages (General) Order, LN 120 of 1982, para 5(1): normal working week not more than 52 hours spread over six days; Employment Act 2007 (Cap 226), s.27	Not modelled	Not modelled	6 daysEmployment Act 2007 (Cap 226), s.27(2): at least one rest day in every seven-day period	Not modelled

These are scheduling safeguards, not legal advice. Each citation is there so you can check our reading against the source. Where a jurisdiction sets hours by agreement rather than statute, as Nigeria does under s.13 of the Labour Act, the figure is the customary norm we warn against and the row says so. Sub-jurisdictions can be stricter: California layers daily overtime over the US federal baseline.

Why it is a table

A number you can check beats a paragraph you cannot.

Every threshold here is generated from the rule pack the scheduler enforces. If a pack changes, this page changes with it, because there is one source rather than a page maintained alongside a product.

An empty cell is deliberate. It means Formclock does not check that rule for that jurisdiction, and we would rather show the edge of what we model than imply coverage we do not have.

Related reading: what an overtime threshold is, how the publish-time check works, predictive scheduling for the fair-workweek rules that sit on top of these in some jurisdictions.

Questions

Common questions.

Which country has the highest weekly working-hours limit?+

Of the jurisdictions Formclock models, Kenya is the highest at 52 hours, and Ghana and the US federal baseline are the lowest at 40. The UK, EU and Nigeria all sit at 48, and South Africa at 45. The spread is the reason a single global setting does not work.

Are these legal maximums or overtime trigger points?+

It depends on the jurisdiction, which is why each row cites its own statute. Ghana's 40 hours is a statutory maximum under s.33 of the Labour Act. Nigeria's 48 is customary rather than statutory: s.13 of the Labour Act fixes normal hours by agreement or collective bargaining, so we warn against the common norm instead. The UK's 48 is an average over a 17-week reference period with an individual opt-out, not a hard weekly ceiling.

Why are some cells empty?+

Because Formclock does not model that rule for that jurisdiction, and saying so is more useful than implying coverage we do not have. Kenya has no daily-rest, break or maximum-shift rule here, and Ghana has no break rule. An empty cell means we do not check it, not that the law is silent.

How current is this table?+

Each row shows the commencement date of the statute it encodes and the date a human last checked it, where those have been sourced. Where they have not, the row says so rather than showing a date nobody established. The table is generated from the same rule packs the scheduler enforces, so it cannot fall out of step with the product.

Is this legal advice?+

No. These are scheduling safeguards, and the citations are there so a person can check our reading against the source. Sub-jurisdictions can be stricter: California layers daily overtime over the US federal baseline and is deliberately not a row here, because a daily rule in a weekly table would misread as though the other jurisdictions had none.

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