Overtime in a Chilean restaurant: how it is calculated and paid

Overtime is a restaurant's variable cost: the contracts are already paid, and every hour beyond them costs 50% more. It is also the most common infringement in an inspection, because it builds up week after week without anyone having decided it.

What counts as overtime

Se entiende por jornada extraordinaria la que excede del máximo legal o de la pactada contractualmente, si fuese menor.

Overtime is time beyond the legal maximum, or beyond the contracted schedule if that is lower. The second half is the one people forget: for someone contracted for 36 hours, hour 37 is already overtime, even though the legal maximum is 42.

It is counted per week. The Labour Directorate says the employer must add up the hours worked at the end of each week from the attendance record; whatever exceeds the agreed weekly schedule is overtime. A long day offset by a short day in the same week creates no overtime. What you cannot do is net weeks against each other: a heavy week is paid even if the next one is light, unless there is an averaging system agreed under article 22 bis, which has its own requirements and limits.

The limits

• Two overtime hours a day, at most (article 31), and only in work that does not harm the worker's health. The Labour Directorate clarified that the limit applies on any day, including a free sixth day in a five-day week.
• Only for temporary needs. Article 32 allows overtime to be agreed "para atender necesidades o situaciones temporales de la empresa" (to meet the company's temporary needs). It is not for permanently covering a missing shift.
• In writing, for at most three months, renewable by agreement.

What it costs

The surcharge is 50% on the salary agreed for the ordinary schedule, paid with that period's pay. If there is no agreed salary, or it is below the minimum wage, the minimum wage is the base.

The Labour Directorate publishes the formula for a monthly-salaried worker on a 42-hour week:

…debe dividirse su sueldo en 30 y multiplicarse por 28, dividiendo luego el resultado por 168. El valor obtenido corresponde al valor de la hora ordinaria. Por último, al resultado obtenido se le debe aumentar el 50%, multiplicándose por 1,5. Al mismo resultado se llega si se multiplica el sueldo mensual por 0,0083333.

Divide the salary by 30, multiply by 28, divide by 168 for the ordinary hourly value, then multiply by 1.5; or simply multiply the salary by 0.0083333. An example with a $700,000 salary and six overtime hours in a week:

The 168 is 4 × 42: four weeks of the agreed schedule. For another schedule that divisor changes, and the Labour Directorate has said one schedule's factor cannot be used for another. With the 40-hour law, the divisor becomes 160 in 2028 and the same overtime hour costs more.

With the two-a-day limit, those six hours must be spread over at least three days.

Sundays

In restaurants, ordinary hours worked on a Sunday carry a surcharge of at least 30%, and that surcharged value is the base for overtime worked on a Sunday (article 38). An overtime hour on Sunday costs more than one on Monday.

Paying it with days off

Since April 2024 both sides can agree in writing to compensate overtime with additional days of leave:

• Up to five working days a year.
• One and a half hours of leave for each overtime hour, the same surcharge as paying it.
• Used within the following six months, with 48 hours' notice. If not requested in time, they are paid.
• Whole days only: the Labour Directorate requires having built up a full day's hours before taking a day.

The six hours in the example equal nine hours of leave.

Part-time

Overtime can also be agreed in part-time contracts, and the calculation base cannot be lower than the minimum wage prorated to the agreed hours (article 40 bis A). Overtime starts above the contracted schedule: on a 20-hour contract, at hour 21.

How it is avoided

Almost all of a restaurant's overtime is decided when the schedule is built, not on the day of service: a badly cut shift, a week with six long days, one person covering every close. Checking each person's week against their contract before publishing is cheaper than paying the surcharge afterwards. The calculator estimates how much goes that way in your restaurant.

How Batuta handles it

In Batuta hours are added up per person and per Monday-to-Sunday week, against their contracted schedule, never netted across the month. The engine avoids overtime when building the month, and when the schedule is reviewed any week above the contract is flagged with the exact hours before publishing.