2&2 vs 14&7 vs 8&6: Comparing Common Camp Rotation Schedules

Every camp posting names a rotation, and the code tells you more than it looks like it does — it's the single biggest factor in how much time you'll actually spend at home, and it changes what a given hourly wage turns into on payday. This is a direct comparison of the three most common schedules on Canadian camp postings. For the full picture on rotations generally — FIFO vs. DIDO, fatigue management, camp life — see our full rotation guide.

The Three Schedules, Side by Side

Rotation	Days On	Days Off	Most Common In
2&2	14	14	Drive-in construction, some hydro sites
8&6	8	6	Mining, construction (mid-remote sites)
14&7	14	7	Fly-in oil sands, remote mining, exploration

A 2&2 gives you an even split between camp and home — two weeks working, two weeks off, repeating. An 8&6 leans slightly toward work but keeps the cycle short, so you're never more than a couple of weeks from a break either way. A 14&7 is the most work-heavy of the three — you spend twice as many days on site as off — which is the trade-off remote, fly-in sites make for a shorter total number of trips in and out of a genuinely hard-to-reach location.

What Each Rotation Does to Take-Home Pay

Rotation length matters for pay because of overtime, not just hours worked. Camp shifts commonly run 12 hours a day, and most provinces require overtime once you're past standard daily hours — so more consecutive days on shift means more overtime hours stacking up before your next stretch off.

Here's an illustrative example using the wage medians we've cited elsewhere on the site — a heavy equipment operator at BC's reported median of $35.75/hour, working 12-hour days at 1.5x overtime past 8 hours:

• A 14&7 tour (14 straight 12-hour days) works out to 112 regular hours and 56 overtime hours — roughly $5,995 for the tour, before any camp or remote-location premiums, for two weeks of actual work compressed into that stretch.
• A 2&2 tour at the same wage and shift length, but only 14 days on before a full two weeks off, produces the same per-tour math — the difference isn't the pay rate, it's how often you're doing it and how much time off you get between tours.

Treat this as a worked example of the mechanics, not a quote for any specific posting — actual pay depends on the employer's own overtime rules, shift length, and any camp or remote premiums on top of base wage. The point is the same either way: a rotation code changes your schedule and your paycheque together, and it's worth doing this math yourself against the actual wage on a posting rather than comparing hourly rates alone.

Choosing Between Them

• Want predictable, even time at home? A 2&2 gives you the same two weeks off every cycle, which is easier to plan around if you have a family or ongoing commitments at home.
• Want fewer total trips to a remote site? A 14&7 means half as many flights or drives in and out per year compared to a 2&2, which matters more the farther the site is from home.
• Want a shorter maximum stretch away? An 8&6 caps how long you're ever away at once, without the frequency of a 2&2's travel days.

None of these is the "correct" choice — it depends on how far the site is from home, what you want your time off to look like, and whether the wage on offer actually makes sense for the schedule once you've done the overtime math. Read the full rotation guide for how FIFO and DIDO factor into that decision, and how camps manage fatigue on the longer end of these schedules.

Getting Started

Browse current camp jobs and filter by rotation directly to compare what's actually posted at each schedule — or start with the complete guide to camp jobs in Canada if you're still weighing camp work generally.