Overtime in Chinese is 加班 (jiā bān): 加 (jiā) means to add and 班 (bān) means a work shift, so the word is literally “add a shift.” The follow-up words you will need just as often: 加班费 (jiā bān fèi, overtime pay), 调休 (tiáo xiū, comp time), and 准时下班 (zhǔn shí xià bān, leaving work on time). Friday is 6 p.m., your colleague stands up to go, and your Chinese manager is still typing. The colleague glances at you and asks, 你今晚加班吗？ Learning how to say overtime in Chinese is how you answer that question calmly instead of freezing at your desk.
加班 sits at the center of China’s office vocabulary: the 996 schedule, the overtime-pay multipliers, the 调休 system that swaps extra hours for extra days off, and the delicate art of asking whether tonight’s extra work is paid, swapped, or simply expected. All of it runs on about a dozen phrases, and this post gives you all of them.
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways
- 加班 (jiā bān) is overtime: 加 (add) + 班 (work shift). The action happens in the evening phrase 今晚加班吗？ (are you working overtime tonight?).
- 加班费 (jiā bān fèi) is overtime pay. Under Chinese labor law the multipliers run 150 percent on weekdays, 200 percent (or comp time) on rest days, and 300 percent on statutory holidays.
- 调休 (tiáo xiū) is comp time: extra hours banked and swapped for days off, the standard alternative to cash at many companies.
- The exit line is 我可以准时下班吗？ (kě yǐ zhǔn shí xià bān ma), may I leave on time? And the culture keyword you will keep hearing is 996 (jiǔ jiǔ liù), the 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six-days-a-week schedule.
The Basics: Breaking Down 加班 (jiā bān)
Character Meaning
加班 is a compound that explains itself:
- 加 (jiā), to add. The same 加 appears in 加油 (jiā yóu, to add oil, which doubles as “good luck, keep going”), 加入 (jiā rù, to join), and 加拿大 (Canada).
- 班 (bān), shift, class, or a scheduled block of time. Its home base is work vocabulary: 上班 (shàng bān, start work), 下班 (xià bān, finish work), 白班 (day shift), 夜班 (night shift).
So 加班 is an added shift. The Linguee translation page for overtime shows the word in full sentences drawn from official Chinese texts, which is a good preview of how formal documents use it, but in speech 加班 is completely casual: 最近天天加班 (I have been working overtime every day lately) is how every office worker in China greets a Monday.
Pronunciation Guide
加班 is jiā bān, tones 1-1: two level high syllables, flat and clean.
- jiā, first tone, high and flat, like a sustained “jah.”
- bān, first tone again, equally flat: “bahn.”
The trap is not tone but the vowel: nudging jiā toward “jee-ah” with a long pause, or bān toward “bawn.” Keep both short and even, two flat syllables landing like two knocks on the conference-room door. Flat tones are your friend here, because in a noisy office the word still cuts through.
加班 vs 加班费 vs 调休: The Overtime Toolkit
Three words decide what overtime costs and what it earns:
- 加班 (jiā bān), the overtime itself. The verb-noun: 我加班了 means I worked overtime.
- 加班费 (jiā bān fèi), overtime pay. 费 (fèi) is fee: 申请加班费 is to request overtime pay.
- 调休 (tiáo xiū), comp time, literally “adjusted rest.” Work Saturday, take Monday off, that swap is 调休.
- 值班 (zhí bān), being on duty, not the same as overtime: it is a scheduled watch, like the weekend phone line at a hotel.
Know the toolkit and you can negotiate: 这周末加班，是加班费还是调休？ (If I work this weekend, is it paid or comp time?). One sentence, asked early, saves the resentment that builds when the answer arrives later as a surprise.
Common Uses and Contexts
In the Office: Saying It in a Sentence
加班 shows up constantly in office small talk, and the set phrases are short:
- 你今晚加班吗？(nǐ jīn wǎn jiā bān ma), are you working overtime tonight? The question everyone asks at 5:55.
- 最近加班加得厉害 (zuì jìn jiā bān jiā de lì hai), I have been swamped with overtime lately. The doubled 加 in speech adds punch.
- 又加班 (yòu jiā bān), overtime again. The 又 (yòu) carries the weary eye-roll all by itself.
- 加班餐 (jiā bān cān), the overtime meal. Many companies order 外卖 or reimburse dinner when you stay late, so the word often comes with food.
The office where you work is the 办公室, and our how to say office in Chinese (办公室) guide covers the room you will be stuck in. If overtime talk is your weekly small talk, you are also building 人脉 (professional relationships), which our guide to 人脉 (networking) covers in depth.
加班费 and 调休: Pay and Comp Time
The money and time rules, in the words people actually use:
- 加班费 (jiā bān fèi), overtime pay. Chinese labor law sets the floor at 150 percent of the base hourly rate on weekdays.
- 调休 (tiáo xiū), comp time. Common in practice and usually simpler: the company logs your extra hours and lets you bank days off, often 一比一 (one to one).
- 打卡 (dǎ kǎ), clock in. Your overtime only “counts” if the attendance system sees it, which is why people stay until the 打卡 time.
- 全勤 (quán qín), perfect attendance, a bonus some companies dock if you take even one unexplained day off.
The practical move: if a manager asks for weekend work, ask 是调休还是加班费？ (Is it comp time or overtime pay?). Either answer is acceptable; the silence that follows the question usually is not, because unspoken expectations are where free overtime hides. And if the extra hours finally catch up with you, our guide to how to say sick leave in Chinese covers the exact phrases for calling in sick the next morning.
Asking to Leave on Time
Leaving at 6 p.m. is normal in China too, but phrasing matters more than the clock:
- 我今天能准时下班吗？(wǒ jīn tiān néng zhǔn shí xià bān ma), can I leave on time today? Polite, direct, and leaves room for a real answer.
- 我的工作做完了 (wǒ de gōng zuò zuò wán le), I have finished my work. The single strongest reason to go, and it is true most days.
- 我有事 (wǒ yǒu shì), I have something going on. The universal soft excuse: everyone hears the unsaid “and I am not explaining it.”
- 明天再做吧 (míng tiān zài zuò ba), let’s do it tomorrow. Said lightly, with a smile, it works more often than you would expect.
After one confident 下班了，我先走了 (I am off, leaving first) said to the room, you stop being the person who waits to be released and become the person who releases themselves. The cost of skipping this is small on any single evening and enormous across a year.
Weekend and Holiday Work
Weekend and holiday overtime run on special rates:
- 周末加班 (zhōu mò jiā bān), weekend overtime. By law this pays 200 percent, or the company offers 调休 instead.
- 法定节假日加班 (fǎ dìng jié jià rì jiā bān), working a statutory holiday (National Day, Spring Festival, May Day). The legal rate is 300 percent, and comp time does not replace it.
- 调班 (tiáo bān), swapping shifts, different from 调休: same hours, different days.
Related Words and Phrases
Words with Similar Meanings
| Chinese | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 加班 | jiā bān | Overtime, to work extra hours |
| 加班费 | jiā bān fèi | Overtime pay |
| 调休 | tiáo xiū | Comp time, swapped rest days |
| 值班 | zhí bān | Being on duty (scheduled) |
| 全勤 | quán qín | Perfect attendance |
The 班 Family: Shift and Schedule Words
班 (bān) organizes the whole work week:
- 上班 (shàng bān), to start work, to be at work
- 下班 (xià bān), to finish work; 下班时间 is quitting time
- 早班 (zǎo bān), morning shift; 晚班 (wǎn bān), evening shift; 夜班 (yè bān), night shift
- 白班 (bái bān), day shift (as opposed to night)
- 大班/小班 (dà bān / xiǎo bān), in schools, the big class and small class, 班 also means class
Master 班 and you can describe any schedule in one word, and the daily pair 上班/下班 frames every working day of your life in China.
Cultural Context: 996, 内卷, and the Overtime Debate
Overtime vocabulary in China comes with cultural baggage you should understand even if you never use it. 996 (jiǔ jiǔ liù) is the shorthand for 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week, a schedule tech companies openly promoted as “the spirit of hard work” until public backlash peaked around 2021, when regulators and courts began calling extreme overtime illegal. What’s on Weibo covered the turning point in its report on overtime culture debates, when Beijing made clear that forced overtime violates labor law and netizens tested whether anything would actually change.
Two companion words fill out the picture: 内卷 (nèi juǎn), involution, the treadmill where everyone works longer hours for the same reward, and PUA, borrowed from English but repurposed to describe bosses who guilt employees into unpaid work. The Travel Through Chinese Learning series on Chinese work culture explains 996, 内卷, and workplace PUA with examples, and it doubles as listening practice for the vocabulary in this post.
For an expat the practical takeaway: the law is on your side, the vocabulary to invoke it is short, and the social skill is knowing when a request is really a request. A confident 我今天能准时下班吗 said without apology usually settles the matter faster than an hour of silent resentment.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Confusing 调休 with 请假. 调休 is comp time you have earned; 请假 is leave you request (and sometimes get docked for). Asking for 调休 you are owed is not asking a favor.
- Saying 加班 when you mean 值班. Overtime is extra; 值班 is scheduled duty. Mixing them up confuses both the schedule and the pay.
- Assuming weekend overtime is automatically paid. Many companies offer 调休 instead, and the law allows it for rest days. Know which one you are getting before you agree.
- Waiting until 10 p.m. to ask. If you will need to decline, raise it at 5 p.m. The later the ask, the more refusal costs face for everyone.
- Translating “I am busy” as 我很忙 only. 忙 (máng) is fine, but 在加班 (I am in the middle of overtime) is the precise, culturally loaded answer everyone actually uses.
Advanced ways for how to say overtime in Chinese sentences
- 你今晚加班吗？ (Nǐ jīn wǎn jiā bān ma?), are you working overtime tonight?
- 这周末要是加班，是调休还是加班费？ (Zhè zhōu mò yào shi jiā bān, shì tiáo xiū hái shi jiā bān fèi?), if we work this weekend, is it comp time or overtime pay?
- 我这个月已经加了好多班了。 (Wǒ zhè ge yuè yǐ jīng jiā le hǎo duō bān le.), I have already worked a lot of overtime this month.
- 今天的工作做完了，我可以准时下班吗？ (Jīn tiān de gōng zuò zuò wán le, wǒ kě yǐ zhǔn shí xià bān ma?), today’s work is done, may I leave on time?
- 法定节假日加班是三倍工资。 (Fǎ dìng jié jià rì jiā bān shì sān bèi gōng zī.), working a statutory holiday pays triple.
Office Chinese is the vocabulary you use most and rehearse least, because nobody practices small talk in a textbook. Ready to use these phrases with a real person? Find a 1-on-1 online Chinese teacher on italki, book by the lesson with no subscription to commit to, and run the whole overtime conversation with a tutor before Friday at 6 p.m. After that, the evening question 你今晚加班吗 gets an answer you chose, not one you nodded into.
