Overtime Rules in Sweden

Not every threshold on this page is fixed by national law in Sweden. The figures above are what the statute sets; where one is marked as not set nationally, the point at which overtime begins, or the rate it is paid at, comes from the employment contract, the collective agreement or sector rules instead.

An empty figure is information rather than an omission. Read the source linked below before applying any of these numbers to a specific contract in Sweden.

No maximum weekly hours figure is listed for Sweden: the statute cited below does not set one as a weekly ceiling. Daily limits, annual overtime caps and minimum rest periods may still apply, so read the source before planning long weeks.

A rest break is owed once a shift passes 5 hours, but the statute fixes no minimum length for it in Sweden: the duration comes from the collective agreement, the internal rules or the contract. Unpaid breaks are excluded from paid hours, which is how the hours calculator treats the break field by default.

Select Sweden in the hours calculator or the timesheet and its thresholds are applied to your week automatically. Because no statutory multiplier applies in Sweden, overtime hours are listed on their own line at the plain hourly rate, and the premium your contract or collective agreement sets is yours to enter.