"Time and a half" sounds generous until the payslip lands. On a €45,000 salary an overtime hour billed at €33.28 gross is worth about €17.56 after tax, because overtime is taxed exactly like the rest of your pay, at your marginal rate rather than a special rate of its own (the marginal-versus-average distinction itself is covered fully in how much tax you pay at every salary). This page is about what that rate does to the value of an hour worked, when the maths still favours doing it, and how it stacks up against asking for a permanent rise instead.
Figures come from the IrishPAYE calculator on Budget 2026 rates for a single worker aged 35 on standard credits. We use a base 39-hour week and time-and-a-half overtime to get to a real hourly value rather than a flat percentage.
What an hour of overtime is worth (2026)
| Base salary | Marginal rate | You keep | OT rate (1.5×) gross | OT rate after tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €30,000 | 27.24% | 72.8% | €22.19/hr | €16.14/hr |
| €45,000 | 47.24% | 52.8% | €33.28/hr | €17.56/hr |
| €60,000 | 47.24% | 52.8% | €44.38/hr | €23.41/hr |
| €80,000 | 52.24% | 47.8% | €59.17/hr | €28.26/hr |
The 1.5× premium survives tax, the euro amount does not
Look along the table's last two columns and a pattern holds at every salary: the after-tax overtime rate is close to one and a half times what an ordinary hour is worth after tax at the same salary. That is because a normal hour and an overtime hour worked in the same period are taxed at the same marginal rate, so multiplying by 1.5 for the premium and then taking away the same tax share leaves the ratio intact. At €45,000, a normal hour is worth €22.19 gross; tax takes a bigger absolute bite out of the overtime hour simply because there is more of it to tax, not because the rate on the overtime portion is any higher. What genuinely erodes the value of every hour, base or overtime, is crossing into a higher band as your total pay for the year rises, which is a salary-level effect rather than anything specific to working the extra hour.
That corrects a common misreading of the payslip: seeing barely more land in your account for a 1.5x hour is not evidence the premium was quietly reduced. It is the same tax share landing on a bigger number, nothing more.
Recurring hours self-level, a bonus does not
PAYE and USC are charged on the cumulative basis, tested against your credits and cut-off banked so far in the year, a mechanism explained in full at how the cumulative basis works. Recurring overtime sits comfortably inside that system: each period's extra hours add a small amount against that period's own share of the annual cut-off, so there is rarely a mismatch to correct. A single large lump sum behaves differently, and can outrun the cut-off banked so far in one go; see how much of your bonus you keep for what that does to one payslip. The rate applied is the same in both cases; only the shape of the payment differs.
Overtime versus a permanent pay rise
These are two different decisions wearing the same "extra money" label, and the tax system treats them differently. Overtime only taxes the specific hours you choose to work, at whatever your current marginal rate is; the rest of your normal salaried hours keep being taxed exactly as before. A worker on €30,000 keeps 72.8% of an overtime hour, taxed at 27.24%, while their ordinary salary sits comfortably in the standard band. A permanent rise is structurally different: it resets your baseline, so if it carries you across a threshold, every hour of your normal pay from then on is taxed at the new rate, not just the increase itself. A rise from €30,000 to €45,000 moves the marginal rate on all of your normal pay from 27.24% to 47.24%, which is a bigger structural change than working extra hours ever makes to your pay.
Neither is universally better. A rise is worth more if you would happily work the same hours you already do at a higher rate for all of them; overtime is worth more if you only want the money for a defined stretch, or if a rise to that level is not actually on offer. Use the pay rise calculator to see what a permanent increase to a specific figure would leave you, and compare it against the per-hour figures in the table above rather than against the headline overtime rate alone.
A worked example: 50 hours of overtime in a quarter
On a €45,000 salary, 50 hours of time-and-a-half overtime over a quarter is €1650 gross. Run through PAYE, USC and PRSI at that salary, it nets about €878, the rest going to those three deductions over the year. That is genuinely more money in every case; the question worth asking is not whether it is worth doing at all, since it always is in pure euro terms, but whether that figure, spread back out over the 50 hours it took to earn, beats what those same hours would otherwise be worth to you. At just under €17.56 an hour after tax, that is a concrete number to hold the decision against rather than the headline 1.5x rate, which describes the payslip, not what actually reaches you.
The same pattern holds at every salary in the table, not just €45,000: a 50-hour block of overtime keeps almost exactly the keep percentage shown further up the page, not some different figure of its own. At €30,000 the block nets about €807, keeping 72.8%; at €45,000 it nets about €878, keeping 52.8%; at €60,000 it nets about €1171, keeping 52.8%; and at €80,000 it nets about €1413, keeping 47.8%. That match is a genuine check on the claim in the section above: recurring overtime really does self-level within its own pay period rather than drifting the way a lump sum can, since the whole-block percentage lines up with the single-hour one at every salary tested, not just the one used in the worked example, instead of sitting somewhere else.
What people get wrong about overtime tax
Comparing the gross overtime rate to their normal net pay. Time-and-a-half against a take-home figure is not a like-for-like comparison; both the base rate and the overtime rate have to be looked at gross or both after tax, never one of each.
Treating the drop in the percentage you keep at a band boundary as overtime being "punished". Nothing about working overtime is taxed more harshly than any other euro at the same point in the year; it is the total for the year crossing a threshold that changes the rate, and any income would do the same, salaried or extra.
Budgeting irregular overtime as if it were guaranteed. The per-hour figures in the table are real, but they describe pay for hours actually worked in a given period; unlike a base salary, there is no obligation on either side for the hours to continue, so treating a good overtime month as the new normal in a household budget is a common and avoidable planning mistake.
Not comparing overtime against the rise that was actually on the table. Turning down a smaller permanent rise to keep taking overtime at the current rate can be the wrong call once the rise is compared correctly, see the section above, rather than compared to the headline overtime multiplier.
Assuming the figures on this page match their own Tax Credit Certificate. The table and worked example use the standard cut-off and credits for a single person. Anyone with a different cut-off, common for someone with extra credits or a transferred band, keeps a different amount from an overtime hour than shown here. Overtime runs through the bonus tax calculator, which has a "use my own tax credits and cut-off" option for exactly this case.
Check your own overtime
Add your expected extra pay to your salary in the bonus tax calculator (overtime and a bonus are taxed identically by rate, only the shape of the payment differs), or see the full deduction picture at your income in how much tax you pay at every salary. If the extra pay in question is actually a single one-off payment rather than recurring hours, see how much of your bonus you keep instead, which covers the lump-sum case this page deliberately leaves out.
Frequently asked questions
How is overtime taxed in Ireland?
Overtime is taxed exactly like the rest of your pay, there is no special overtime tax rate. Because it is extra income on top of your salary, it is taxed at your marginal rate, the rate on your top euro, which is covered fully in how much tax you pay at every salary. This page is about what that means for the value of an actual hour worked.
How much of my overtime pay do I actually keep?
On a €45,000 salary you keep 52.8% of overtime pay, so a time-and-a-half hour worth €33.28 gross is worth €17.56 after tax. On €30,000 you keep 72.8%, so the same €22.19 hour is worth €16.14 after tax.
Is overtime taxed at 50% in Ireland?
Close, for higher earners. Once your income passes €70,044, an overtime hour is taxed at about 52.24%, keeping 47.8%. Below the higher-rate threshold it is closer to 27.24%, keeping 72.8%.
What is an overtime hour actually worth after tax?
At €45,000, a normal hour is worth €22.19 gross; a time-and-a-half overtime hour is worth €33.28 gross but only €17.56 after tax. The 1.5x premium is not eaten by tax, since both the normal hour and the overtime hour are taxed at the same marginal rate, so the after-tax gap between them stays close to 1.5x too; what shrinks is the absolute value of every hour, not the premium between them.
Does regular overtime affect my tax differently from a one-off bonus?
Yes, in timing rather than rate. Both are taxed at your marginal rate, but overtime adds a small amount each pay period, well inside that period's own share of the annual cut-off, so it rarely creates the one-off spike a single large bonus can. See how much of your bonus you keep for that case.
Is it better to work overtime or ask for a pay rise?
They are different decisions. Overtime only taxes the extra hours you actually work at your current marginal rate; a permanent rise changes the rate applied to every future hour of your normal pay if it crosses a band, such as the jump from 27.24% to 47.24% between €30,000 and €45,000. A rise is worth more long term if you would work the hours anyway; overtime is worth more if the extra hours are genuinely optional.
Does overtime push me into a higher tax bracket forever?
No. Only the portion of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate, and that applies for the year the extra pay was earned in, not permanently. The full marginal-versus-effective picture is in how much tax you pay at every salary.
Can I reduce the tax I pay on overtime?
If you do not need the cash immediately, routing overtime pay into your pension attracts income tax relief at your marginal rate, within your age-related limit; USC and PRSI are still charged on the full amount. See pension tax relief for the rules and limits.
Can working overtime ever leave me with less take-home pay?
No. Every extra hour adds to your take-home; the marginal rate only decides how much of that hour you keep, never whether you keep any of it. The feeling of being penalised for working more comes from the keep percentage falling in steps as you cross into a higher band, not from the euro amount ever going backwards. A bigger overtime month always leaves more in your account than a smaller one at the same salary, just not proportionally more once a threshold is crossed.