Working hours, breaks and your day off: what Thai law actually requires
Thailand caps normal work at 8 hours a day and 48 a week, requires a break after 5 straight hours, and guarantees a weekly day off. Overtime needs consent and pays 1.5–3×. Hospitality has its own twists.
The quick version
Normal working time is capped at 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week. After no more than 5 consecutive hours you're entitled to a break of at least 1 hour (it can be split by agreement). Everyone gets at least one day off per week, never more than 6 working days apart. Overtime is voluntary, capped at 36 hours a week, and pays 1.5× — rising to 3× on holidays. Hotels, restaurants and bars have special rules that make shift work legal, but the floors above still apply.
What the law says
- Hours: normal work may not exceed 8 hours/day or 48 hours/week (Labour Protection Act s.23). Hazardous work is capped lower, at 7/42.
- Breaks: after a maximum of 5 consecutive hours of work, a rest period of at least 1 hour is required. Employer and employee can agree to split it into shorter breaks that add up to an hour (s.27). Breaks are generally unpaid unless agreed otherwise.
- Weekly day off: at least 1 day per week, with no more than 6 days between days off (s.28). In hotel work, employer and employee may agree in advance to accumulate weekly days off and take them later — within 4 weeks.
- Public holidays: at least 13 paid public holidays a year, including National Labour Day. If one falls on your weekly day off, you get the next working day off instead.
- Overtime needs consent (s.24): with narrow emergency exceptions, an employer must get your agreement case by case. Total overtime plus holiday work is capped at 36 hours/week.
- The rates: weekday overtime pays 1.5× the hourly wage. Working on a day off or public holiday pays an extra 1× on top for staff whose salary already covers holidays (effectively 2×), or 2× for daily-paid staff. Overtime on a holiday pays 3× (ss.61–63).
- Hospitality exception: hotels, entertainment venues, food and beverage shops may require work on public holidays (s.25) — but the pay rules above still apply in full.
Both sides
For employees
- Count your consecutive hours. More than 5 without a break, or a 7-day stretch with no day off, is a violation — not "just how the industry is."
- Overtime is your choice. Blanket "OT included" clauses don't replace the legal rates for actual extra hours worked.
- Keep your own record of hours and days off. In a dispute, your notes plus payslips are your evidence. The DLPW hotline (1506) takes complaints.
For employers
- Build rotas backwards from the law: max 6 working days between days off, a real break in every shift over 5 hours, OT within 36 h/week and consented.
- Split shifts are legal — split breaks need agreement, and the total daily rest must still reach 1 hour.
- Using the hotel accumulate-days-off rule? Put the agreement in writing in advance and track the 4-week window. Unpaid, untracked "we'll owe you a day" is how back-pay orders happen.
Myths & gray areas
- "Salaried staff don't get overtime." Mostly false. Genuine management with hiring/firing power is exempt; a shift supervisor on salary usually is not.
- "The break doesn't count because we're busy." Legally it does. Working through a break is working time — and can push you into overtime.
- "A service-industry job means no day off in high season." Hotels may postpone weekly days off by written agreement, within 4 weeks. They don't disappear.
- Gray area — on-call time. Time you must stay at the venue ready to work generally counts as working time; time truly free at home generally doesn't. Document what's expected.
What good looks like
Publish the rota at least a week ahead, with days off marked. Track hours in something staff can see, pay the OT rates without being asked, and honour the 5-hour break rule even on a full house — a fed, rested team on a legal rota outperforms a burned-out one every week of the year. Reliability runs both ways: it's the same fairness employers ask of workers, applied to the schedule.
Sources
Plain-language summary, not legal advice.
Laws and figures change. For your situation, confirm with the source or a licensed Thai lawyer. Department of Labour Protection & Welfare hotline: 1506. Disputes can go to the Labour Court.
Related
Know your rights, then make your move.
SHIFTED connects verified employers with pre-screened workers — fairly, both sides.