In both BC and Alberta, working in an accounting firm or performing accounting duties does not automatically make an employee exempt from overtime requirements. The exemption is tied more closely to professional status. In BC, the exemption applies to members of CPABC and individuals formally enrolled as students under the Chartered Professional Accountants Act. A university student completing an accounting co-op or summer internship would not generally meet that definition simply because they are studying accounting or working in public practice.

Accordingly, a BC co-op or summer student who is still completing their undergraduate degree and has not formally entered the CPA professional pathway should generally be treated as covered by the Employment Standards Act and eligible for statutory overtime. Once the individual is formally enrolled as a CPA student under the applicable legislation, there is a much stronger basis for applying the professional exemption. This aligns closely with the historical approach of distinguishing undergraduate co-op students from employees who have begun their CPA training.

In Alberta, the legislation and guidance refer to certified or chartered accountants as being exempt from overtime requirements, but they do not clearly extend that exemption to ordinary undergraduate accounting students. For that reason, the safer approach is also to treat co-op and summer students as overtime eligible unless there is a clear basis for concluding that their professional registration or CPA candidate status brings them within the exemption.

From a policy perspective, I would recommend against applying a blanket 1:1 overtime arrangement to all accounting students or junior accounting staff. For non-exempt employees, once the applicable statutory overtime threshold is reached, the firm generally cannot replace the statutory overtime entitlement with straight-time pay or 1:1 time off. A more defensible policy would make overtime eligibility dependent on each employee’s professional registration status rather than their job title, department, or the fact that they work in public accounting.

Let me know if you have any other questions!
-HRInsider Staff