Film crew overtime: time and a half, double time and golden time

On most union film and TV crews, overtime is time and a half (1.5×) after 8 worked hours and double time (2×) after 12. Golden time — the top tier — starts after 14 consecutive hours from call under the 2024 IATSE Basic Agreement (2×, then 3× after 15), and at the 16th hour worked under IATSE Local 873 in Toronto (3×). The exact thresholds belong to your agreement, craft and region, so check yours before you sign a timecard. This is general information, not legal or payroll advice.

Quick reference: when each rate starts

*The 3× step applies to productions that began principal photography on or after August 2024; on a sixth or seventh day the Golden Hour rates are higher, and on studio-only shifts they start after 12 hours. Under the US Basic Agreement the 1.5× and 2× thresholds come from each craft's own wage scales, so ask your local. Sources linked in the table, checked on 23 October 2026. Union contracts usually override the legal floor — California's own overtime law exempts workers covered by a qualifying collective agreement.

A worked example

Take a $40/hour base rate and a 14-hour worked day on the Local 873 ladder: 1.5× after 8 hours, 2× after 12.

Push the same day to 16 worked hours and the 13th–15th hours are at 2× ($240), while the 16th is at 3× ($120): $920 in total. That is why the last two hours of a long day can be worth more than the first four. Open this example in the overtime calculator and change the rate and hours to your own.

On the day: how a long day really adds up

Here is a typical long location day, as an illustration. Call is 7:00, lunch runs 13:00–13:30 (unpaid), and wrap is called at 22:30. That is 15.5 hours on the clock but 15 worked hours. On the Local 873 ladder, hours 9–12 are at 1.5× and hours 13–15 at 2×. Under the US Basic Agreement, Golden Hours count from call with lunch included, so they begin at 21:00 — 14 hours after call — and from 22:00 the rate steps up again on newer productions. The same day earns a different total depending on which clock the agreement uses.

The mistakes that cost crews money are usually small ones:

• Writing the scheduled call, not the real one. If you were asked in early, your day started then.
• Stopping at camera wrap. Your day ends when you are released — after the gear is wrapped and the truck is loaded — not when the last shot is called.
• Not logging meal times. Without the real start of the meal, nobody can prove a meal penalty or work out the worked hours.
• Rounding the wrong way. Many agreements count overtime in tenths of an hour (Local 873 does), so 14 hours 50 minutes is not "14 hours".

Write the times down as they happen — call, meal out, meal in, wrap, released — and the overtime takes care of itself when you fill in the timecard.

Straight time and "worked" hours

Straight time is your base hourly rate for the first block of the day — commonly the first eight worked hours. "Worked" is the key word: unpaid meal periods usually do not count toward the 1.5× and 2× thresholds, which is why twelve hours on the clock can be fewer than twelve worked hours. Golden time is different under the US Basic Agreement: it counts consecutive hours from the time you report, meal periods included.

Golden time

Golden time is the top overtime tier for very long days. The 2024 IATSE Basic Agreement calls it Golden Hours: on an ordinary day, every hour past 14 consecutive hours from call is paid at 2×, and past 15 at 3× on productions that started in or after August 2024. On a sixth day it is 3× then 4.5×, and on a seventh day or holiday 4× then 6×. Toronto's Local 873 agreement has no elapsed-time trigger in its overtime article — it simply pays 3× from the sixteenth hour worked. Not every agreement uses the term, so check yours.

Meal penalties

A meal penalty is owed when the production works you past the deadline for a meal. The 2024 US Basic Agreement requires a meal within six hours of call or of the last meal, with a 12-minute grace period that may not be scheduled in advance. Local 873 starts its penalty at the end of the sixth hour: the first 0.2 hour is free, the next 0.3 hour costs $7.50, and the amounts then rise per tenth of an hour. Penalty amounts are among the most agreement-specific figures on a timecard.

Turnaround and rest

Turnaround is the minimum rest between wrap and the next call. Local 873 sets ten hours (nine for Transportation, eleven on features working outside the zone) and pays any encroachment at double time. The 2024 US Basic Agreement pays invaded rest time at an additional double time, with a minimum of half an hour.

Where to find your real rates

Three places. Your collective agreement or rate sheet, which your local or guild publishes to members; your deal memo, which records your rate, guaranteed hours and anything negotiated above scale; and, for non-union work, your region's employment standards, which set the legal floor. Agreements are renegotiated, so check the version in force for the dates you worked.

Check your own day

For a quick estimate from your rate and hours, use the free film crew overtime calculator. For the real thing — computed live from your agreement, with every figure showing the rule it came from — that is what Wrap Clock, our crew timecard app, is built to do. Where a rule cannot be verified, it withholds the amount rather than guessing.