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How APA overtime actually works
Updated for the terms effective 1 September 2026. The overtime grade boundaries have moved: Grade I now runs to £458 and Grade III starts at £697. The figures below are the new ones. See what changed in the September 2026 terms.
Here is the bit that surprises people: the more you earn, the less your overtime is worth.
Not less in total. Less per hour, relative to your own rate. A lighting technician on £444 gets time and a half. A DoP on £1,516 gets time. Same agreement, same overtime, wildly different multiplier, and it is deliberate.
If you have ever been vaguely annoyed that your overtime didn't feel like it added up, this is probably why.
The two numbers everything is built on
Your basic daily rate (BDR) is what you agreed. Appendix 1 of the APA Recommended Crew Terms lists a minimum and maximum for every grade, and what you negotiate sits somewhere in that band.
Your basic hourly rate (BHR) is exactly one tenth of your BDR. Not one eleventh, even though the day is eleven hours. One tenth. A £444 day gives you a £44 hour.
Every overtime calculation in the agreement is BHR multiplied by something. That's it. The whole system is one number and a coefficient.
The three grades
Which coefficient you get depends purely on your day rate:
| Grade | Basic daily rate | Overtime coefficient | You get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grade I | £0 to £458 | 1.5 | Time and a half |
| Grade II | £459 to £696 | 1.25 | Time and a quarter |
| Grade III | £697 and above | 1.0 | Flat time |
A lighting technician on £444 is Grade I, so their overtime hour is £44 × 1.5 = £67.
A gaffer on £568 is Grade II, so theirs is £57 × 1.25 = £71.
A DoP on £1,516 is Grade III. Their overtime hour is £152 × 1.0 = £152. Enormous in absolute terms, and no uplift whatsoever for the fact that it's overtime.
The logic is that the higher rates are already priced to absorb long days. Whether you find that convincing is up to you, but it's the deal, and it's worth knowing which side of £458 and £697 you're sitting on, because a fiver on your day rate can move you a whole grade and cost you money on every overtime hour you work for the rest of the job.
When overtime actually starts
The basic working day is eleven hours in total: ten working hours and one hour for lunch. Overtime applies after eleven hours from your call.
So an 08:00 call means overtime starts at 19:00. Not 18:00. The unpaid lunch hour is inside the eleven.
That changes with your call time:
Standard call (7am to 11am). Overtime after eleven hours from call.
Early call (5am to 7am). The hours between 5am and 7am are paid at your overtime rate straight away, then the rest of the day is charged as a normal basic day. Overtime still starts eleven hours after your actual call. A 05:00 call means two hours at OT immediately, then BDR, then overtime again from 16:00.
The early call rule applies all seven days of the week, Monday to Sunday. Not just weekdays.
Late call (11am to 5pm). The basic day is deemed to start at 11am no matter how late you're actually called. So a 13:00 call still runs its eleven hours from 11am, and overtime starts at 22:00. You are, in effect, being paid for two hours you didn't work. Which is also why a late call day that wraps early can leave you with nothing extra.
The rounding rule is in your favour
Section 4.5: overtime is charged per minute, and you are entitled to round up to thirty minutes.
Work ten minutes of overtime, charge thirty. Work thirty five minutes, charge an hour.
It rounds up, always, in your direction. That's not a courtesy, it's the agreement.
Triple time after midnight
Any overtime worked between midnight and 5am is paid at three times your basic hourly rate. And once you're into it, you stay in it: the triple rate continues until wrap, even past 5am.
The word doing the work there is overtime. Triple is an overtime rate. If you're still inside your basic eleven hours at half past midnight, you're on your basic day rate, not triple. The two conditions have to stack: past your eleven hours, and past midnight.
Getting this wrong in either direction is common. Crew undercharge by assuming midnight alone triggers it. Productions occasionally overcharge themselves by paying triple for basic hours.
Weekends
Saturdays and Sundays don't use your overtime coefficient at all. The three grades are a Monday to Friday system, and at the weekend everyone is on the same rate:
| Day | Rate | Minimum call |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday | 1.5 × BDR for the basic working day, then OT at 1.5 × BHR | 10 hours |
| Sunday, bank holiday, statutory holiday | 2 × BHR for all hours worked | 10 hours |
Note the difference in shape. A Saturday works like a weekday: a fixed fee for the basic working day, then overtime beyond it, at a higher rate with the grades switched off. Ten hours at 1.5 × BHR comes to the same money as 1.5 × BDR, so you will see the Saturday day quoted both ways. A Sunday is genuinely flat, every hour worked at double. The weekend rates article works both through in full.
The minimum call matters. Six hours on a Sunday still pays ten.
Overtime after midnight is still triple, based on your basic hourly rate. And going past 5am doesn't start a new engagement, you stay on the triple rate through to wrap.
A worked example
Lighting technician, £444 day, Grade I, £44 hourly, £67 overtime.
Call 08:00, wrap 22:00.
- 08:00 to 19:00 is the basic eleven hours: £444
- 19:00 to 22:00 is three hours of overtime at £67: £201
- Total: £645
Not fourteen hours multiplied by anything. Eleven hours as a fixed day fee, then hours at a coefficient. That's the shape of every calculation in the agreement.
What we built
TimeMachine works all of this out from your call and wrap. It knows your grade from your day rate, applies the right coefficient, starts overtime at the right hour for your call type, rounds up to the half hour in your favour, and switches to triple at the right moment on the right hours.
You can absolutely do it by hand. Most people do it in the Notes app at 1am and get it slightly wrong.
The short version
- BHR is one tenth of BDR. Everything else is that number times a coefficient.
- Grade I (up to £458) is 1.5×. Grade II (£459 to £696) is 1.25×. Grade III (£697+) is 1.0×.
- The basic day is eleven hours including the unpaid lunch. Overtime starts after eleven.
- Late call? The day is deemed to start at 11am regardless.
- Early call? 5am to 7am is paid at OT, and it applies all seven days.
- Overtime rounds up to the nearest thirty minutes, in your favour.
- Triple after midnight applies to overtime hours only, and continues past 5am to wrap.
- Saturday is 1.5× BDR for the basic working day, with overtime after it at 1.5× BHR. Sunday and bank holidays are 2× BHR all day. Both have a ten hour minimum.
TimeMachine is an independent tool for UK film and television crew. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Advertising Producers Association (APA). It references the publicly available APA Recommended Crew Terms as a rate reference only. Rates quoted are from the September 2025 card. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice.