Three categories of enhanced pay are required under the Saint Lucia Labour Act: overtime, Sunday work, and public holiday work. Each has a different rate, and each requires accurate record-keeping to calculate and pay correctly.

Overtime: 1.5×

Overtime applies when a non-salaried employee works more than their contracted daily hours. Under the Labour Act, overtime is compensated at a minimum of 1.5 times the regular hourly rate.

Overtime calculation

Regular hourly rate: XCD 20.00 Hours worked beyond 8 hours in a day: 3 hours Overtime pay: 3 × (XCD 20.00 × 1.5) = XCD 90.00

The overtime threshold is applied on a daily basis, not weekly. An employee who works 10 hours on Monday and 6 hours on Tuesday has 2 hours of overtime on Monday, regardless of their total weekly hours.

Monthly salary employees do not normally attract overtime unless they work significantly beyond their contracted hours and the contract or company policy provides for it. Clarify this in the employment contract.

Sunday work: 2×

Any employee required to work on a Sunday is entitled to double their regular hourly rate for all hours worked on that day. This is not overtime: it is a premium rate that applies to the full Sunday shift, not just hours beyond a threshold.

If an employee works a full 8-hour Sunday shift at XCD 20.00/hour, Sunday pay is XCD 320.00 (8 × XCD 40.00).

Public holiday pay: 2×

The same double-rate rule applies to work performed on a Saint Lucia public holiday. If a public holiday falls on a day the employee would not normally work, and they are not required to work, no additional pay is due. If they are called in, all hours that day attract 2× rate.

Public holiday in lieu

Some employers offer a day off in lieu of pay when a public holiday falls on a working day. Whether this satisfies the legal requirement depends on your employment contracts and company policy. Review your contracts to confirm whether "time off in lieu" is explicitly provided for.

Combining rates

An employee who works on a Sunday that is also a public holiday is entitled to the public holiday rate: 2×. The rates do not stack. The higher of the applicable rates governs.

An employee who works beyond 8 hours on a public holiday is entitled to 2× for all hours on that day: the overtime rate does not apply on top of the public holiday rate.

Records you must keep

Without complete records, your payroll calculations cannot be verified and your compliance cannot be demonstrated. A payslip showing "overtime: XCD 270.00" with no underlying timesheet is not sufficient.

What to Keep on Record

  • Regular hours worked each day
  • Start and end times for each shift
  • Overtime hours worked, by day
  • Sunday hours, by date
  • Public holiday hours, by date and which holiday

SafeDocs Payroll calculates overtime, Sunday and public holiday pay automatically from recorded hours, with the underlying timesheet retained.

See How SafeDocs Handles Payroll