Working hours in Qatar: limits, Ramadan and overtime

What are the maximum working hours in Qatar?

In the private sector, normal working hours are capped at eight a day and 48 a week, or six a day and 36 a week in Ramadan (Article 73 of Qatar's Labour Law). Your contract can set shorter hours, and any term that goes beyond these caps is void (Article 4).

Young workers may not work between sunset and sunrise, on rest days or official holidays, or beyond normal hours (Article 89).

These rules cover private-sector workers under the Labour Law. Among the groups the law does not cover (Article 3, as replaced by Law No. 9 of 2026):

• Government staff, including public authorities and institutions. An Emiri decision sets their working days and the Council of Ministers sets their hours, in Ramadan and the rest of the year (Article 60 of the Civil Human Resources Law). See our guide to the Civil Human Resources Law.
• Domestic workers. Their day is capped at ten hours unless agreed otherwise, with a paid weekly rest of at least 24 hours in a row (Articles 12 and 13 of Law No. 15 of 2017).
• Part-time and self-employed workers, added by the 2026 amendment. The Council of Ministers may apply parts of the law to them or set special rules.

What are working hours in Ramadan?

During Ramadan, normal working hours may not exceed six a day and 36 a week (Article 73). The text makes no distinction between Muslim and non-Muslim workers, or between Qataris and expatriates.

The Ministry of Labour announces Ramadan hours for the private sector each year. For Ramadan 2026 it set six hours a day and 36 a week, in line with the Labour Law.

• Article 74 defines overtime as hours beyond those in Article 73, Ramadan hours included, so work after your sixth hour on a Ramadan day is overtime.
• The ten-hour daily cap on actual work still applies, as Article 74 makes no exception for Ramadan.
• Breaks for prayer, rest and meals still apply (Article 73).

Example: in Ramadan you work eight hours a day, six days a week. That is two hours over the daily limit each day and 12 over the weekly limit. At a basic wage of QAR 20 an hour, each overtime hour pays at least QAR 25, so at least QAR 300 a week. The law gives no method for turning a monthly wage into an hourly rate.

What breaks are you entitled to during the working day?

Working hours must include one or more breaks for prayer, rest and meals, of one to three hours. Breaks do not count as working time, and you should never work more than five hours in a row (Article 73).

Some work may run without a rest stop, such as hospitals, pharmacies, bakeries, airports, ports, transport and continuous shift work. There, the employer must still let workers pray and have drinks and light food (Ministerial Decision No. 10 of 2005).

What are the working days in Qatar, and when is the weekly rest day?

You get a paid weekly rest of at least 24 hours in a row. Friday is the normal rest day for all workers except shift workers, and no one else may be made to work more than two Fridays in a row (Article 75).

The Labour Law does not fix the number of working days. It requires at least one rest day and caps the week at 48 hours, and leaves the pattern of days to your contract within those limits.

Emiri Decision No. 57 of 2025 sets the State's working days as Sunday to Thursday, with Friday and Saturday as the weekend (Article 1), and government bodies follow it. For official holidays, the same decision points the private sector to the Labour Law (Article 6). If you work on your rest day, you get another rest day and extra pay (Article 75).

When does work count as overtime, and how is it paid?

Overtime means hours beyond the normal hours in Article 73. It is allowed only while your total actual work stays within ten hours a day, except in the emergencies Article 74 lists.

Private-sector workers get ten official holiday days a year on full pay: three for Eid al-Fitr, three for Eid al-Adha, one for the State's National Day on 18 December, and three on dates the employer chooses (Article 78). Law No. 9 of 2026 put "the State's National Day" in place of "Independence Day" in that article. The Ministry of Labour's Eid al-Fitr holiday announcement confirmed that work during Eid falls under Article 74.

• The rules on hours, overtime and weekly rest do not apply to board chairs, general managers, department heads and supervisors who hold, or are delegated, the employer's powers over workers (Article 76; Ministerial Decision No. 11 of 2005). A job title alone does not settle it.
• Breaking the rules on hours, overtime, weekly rest or the posted schedule is punishable by a fine of QAR 2,000 to 5,000 (Article 144, as replaced by Law No. 9 of 2026).

For annual leave and more overtime examples, see our guide to annual leave and overtime.

Can you be made to work outdoors at midday in summer?

No. From 1 June to 15 September each year, work in the sun, in open workplaces, or in places without shade and ventilation is banned from 10 am to 3:30 pm (Article 2 of Ministerial Decision No. 17 of 2021). The Ministry of Labour applied it over those dates in summer 2026.

• The employer must post the daily hours schedule where workers and labour inspectors can see it (Article 3).
• The employer must monitor the heat-stress index (WBGT) and stop work at any site where it goes above 32.1 degrees (Article 4, item 9). The decision does not limit this duty to the summer ban period.
• The employer must also provide cool drinking water throughout the shift, shaded rest areas, light clothing suited to the heat, and a yearly medical check at no cost to the worker (Article 4).
• If you have good reason to believe heat stress threatens your safety or health, you may stop work, tell your supervisors and complain to the Ministry. You may not be dismissed, stripped of your rights or discriminated against for it (Article 6).
• The Minister may close a site that breaks the rules, in part or in full (Article 7). The decision does not apply to companies working on oil and gas projects (Article 8).

When should you speak to a lawyer?

These situations are worth a legal review:

• You regularly work more than ten actual hours a day, or your overtime does not appear on your payslips.
• You were told to work outdoors between 10 am and 3:30 pm during the summer ban.
• You worked more than six hours a day in Ramadan, or on a rest day or official holiday, without compensation.
• You are treated as a manager outside the hours rules without holding the employer's powers over workers.
• Your contract sets longer hours than the law allows, or lower overtime pay than it requires.
• It is nearly a year since your contract ended. Claims lapse one year after the contract ends (Article 10).

Claims for unpaid overtime go through the Ministry of Labour. The steps are in our guide on filing a labour complaint.

Questions people ask