What it means
اضافه کار (ezafe-kar) is the Persian word for overtime. The compound is اضافه (ezafe, extra, additional) plus کار (kar, work). Literally: extra work. The phrase covers both the extra hours and the extra wages, depending on context. By Iranian labor law, hours beyond the standard 44-hour week trigger an ezafe-kar rate, typically 40% above the base hourly wage, though enforcement varies wildly between public sector, private formal sector, and the large informal economy.
The same word اضافه shows up in dozens of compounds: اضافهوزن (ezafe-vazn, excess weight), اضافهحقوق (ezafe-hoqug, salary increase), اضافهبار (ezafe-bar, excess baggage). The pattern is productive and modern.
How to use it
You use ezafe-kar when discussing work schedules, paychecks, or complaining about exhaustion. It is a daily-life word in any Iranian household with someone on a salary.
īn māh khēyli ezafe-kar dāshtam.
I had a lot of overtime this month.
این ماه خیلی اضافه کار داشتم.
hoqūq-e ezafe-kar-am rā hanūz nadādand.
They still have not paid my overtime wages.
حقوق اضافه کارم را هنوز نداده اند.
Where it comes from
اضافه is Arabic-origin, from the root ḍ-y-f, an infinitive of the form IV verb meaning to add or to attach. In Arabic grammar itself, اضافه (iḍāfa) is also the technical name for the genitive construct, which Persian borrowed and uses for its own ezafe vowel that links words in noun phrases. The same word does two jobs in Persian: the everyday extra and the grammatical particle. کار is Pure Persian, from Old Persian kāra, related to Avestan kərəna. The compound as a labor-law term is modern, dating to Iran’s first formal labor codes in the Pahlavi period and refined through subsequent revisions.
In our voice
For Iranian workers, ezafe-kar is often the difference between a tight month and a survivable one. The legal rate exists on paper. Whether you actually get paid for it depends on your employer, your sector, and your willingness to push back. Knowing the word is step one. Knowing your rights under it is step two. Public sector workers tend to get paid their ezafe-kar more reliably than private sector ones, but they also tend to do more of it on lower base wages, which is its own trap. Ask any Iranian who has worked salaried jobs and you will hear a story about ezafe-kar that went unpaid, contested, or quietly built into a system that nobody bothers to fight anymore.
References
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