Is shift differential included in overtime pay?

Under federal law, yes: a night differential is part of the regular rate, and overtime is half of that rate on top of the hours. In the example week above that’s $15.90 of overtime premium instead of $14.00.

How is shift differential calculated?

As a percentage of your hourly rate, for the hours that fall in the differential’s window. 9 h at night at +15% of $28.00 is $37.80. If your contract gives a flat amount per hour, switch the field to $ and type it as it is.

Do shift differentials stack?

Only when your contract says so. After midnight on a Friday night the same hours are night work and weekend work. Some contracts pay both, others only the larger. The Friday night in the example comes to $393 with both and $374 with the larger.

Is shift differential taxed?

Yes. The IRS counts all pay for work as wages, however it’s measured, so a differential is taxed with the rest of your pay. The federal deduction for overtime, for the tax years 2025 to 2028, covers only the part above the regular rate, the “half” of time and a half.

Does shift differential apply to PTO?

Only if your employer’s policy or your contract says it does. The FLSA doesn’t require pay for time not worked, vacation included. The UW Medical Center–Montlake contract above pays the differential on paid time off to nurses permanently on evenings or nights.

Is shift differential required by law?

No federal law requires a night or weekend differential. It comes from your employer or your union contract, which is why every differential starts at zero in the app.

Do you get paid more for 12-hour shifts?

Not for the length alone. Federal overtime counts the week, so three 12-hour shifts make 36 hours and none of it is overtime. A fourth makes 48, and 8 of those hours are overtime. Some states count overtime by the day; the calculator doesn’t model those.

Do you get paid for the extra hour when daylight saving time ends?

Yes, when you’re paid by the hour. The FLSA counts every hour actually worked, and the clocks go back at 2 AM on November 1, 2026. A Saturday night from 7 PM to 7 AM lasts 13 hours. At the example’s $28, with nights +15% and weekends +10%, it pays $442, against $407 on a normal Saturday night. The extra hour counts toward the week’s 40 like any other. When the clocks go forward on March 14, 2027, the same night lasts 11 hours and pays $372.

Why is my pay period fourteen days and not the calendar week?

Payroll sets the period around payday, so it rarely lines up with a calendar week. Many payrolls close the period a few days before payday; this calculator takes that gap under Pay period, so its stub check compares the right days. The app ends each period on payday: in the app, enter the period’s last day as payday and its check covers the same days. Twice a month is the 1st to the 15th and the 16th to the end of the month. A night that crosses the end of a period is counted whole in the period it started in.

My shifts change every schedule. Can I use this?

The calculator works from a rotation, plus one change. In the app, a schedule that changes every posting goes in as a one-week pattern with no shifts, and each shift is added as it’s posted; pick Over 40 h a week as the overtime rule there, because under the per-day rule every added shift counts as overtime in full.

What does the app add to this?

It follows your real schedule, including the shift you stayed late on or the Saturday you picked up. The pay follows every change, the Today screen shows this week’s total for free, and with Pro each pay period gets its line items and a stub check. Pro is $5.99 a month, $34.99 a year or $79.99 once, in the US.

A sanitation worker in a green jacket climbs into the open cab of a white garbage truck as it turns a corner at night, with a yellow taxi and blue-lit scaffolding behind.

Shift pay calculator

Two weeks of a Pitman 2-2-3 at $28.00 an hour, with differentials and overtime, added up the way TurnoRest does it.

Base84 h: $2,352.00
Weekend24 h: $67.20
Overtime8 h: $114.80

$2,534.00

Gross, before tax. Put in your own numbers.

Your pay period, line by line

Skip to the result

Your schedule

Rotation

First day of the cycle

Shifts start at

Any day you worked the first shift of the pattern will do as the first day.

Your rate

Hourly rate

Night work

= $4.20 an hourpercent of the hourly ratedollars an hour

Night windowCounted by overlap, not by shift type

Saturday

= $2.80 an hourpercent of the hourly ratedollars an hour

Sunday

Overtime

Put each differential in % or in $ an hour, the way your contract words it. Time and a half is +50%, because the hours are already in base pay.

When they overlap

Add them upOne premium per hour

A Saturday night is night work and weekend work at the same time. Adding them up pays both differentials; one per hour pays only the larger. Check what your contract says.

Overtime rule

Against the schedule, per dayOver 40 h a weekFirefighters: over 212 h in 28 daysLaw enforcement: over 171 h in 28 days

Overtime is the hours over 40 in the workweek, as in US federal law. 29 U.S.C. §207(a)(1) The app’s default is “Against the schedule, per day”; this page opens on the federal rule.

Pay period

Frequency

Payday

Paid after the period endsThis period: Sun, Sep 27 – Sat, Oct 10, 2026

Count the days from the end of the period to payday; Saturday to the following Friday is 6. A shift counts in the period it starts in. The app itself ends each period on payday: there, enter the period’s last day as payday, and its check covers the same days.

Check a pay stub

Gross on your pay stub

Type the gross from your stub and the check runs here, with the matching line marked in the result.

A change, if you like

Day

On a day off it’s a picked-up shift. Under the per-day rule all of it is overtime; under the others it counts toward the week or the cycle.

The 7 shifts in this period

Shifts in the pay period, with night and weekend hours
Day	Hours	Night	Weekend	Before overtime
Mon, Sep 287 AM–7 PM	12 h	–	–	$336.00
Tue, Sep 297 AM–7 PM	12 h	–	–	$336.00
Fri, Oct 27 AM–7 PM	12 h	–	–	$336.00
Sat, Oct 37 AM–7 PM	12 h	–	12 h	$369.60
Sun, Oct 47 AM–7 PM	12 h	–	12 h	$369.60
Wed, Oct 77 AM–7 PM	12 h	–	–	$336.00
Thu, Oct 87 AM–7 PM	12 h	–	–	$336.00

Period total$2,534.00See the lines

Gross pay for the period

Pay period: Sun, Sep 27 – Sat, Oct 10, 2026
Paid: Fri, Oct 16, every two weeks
Example: Pitman 2-2-3, $28.00 an hour, nights +15%, weekends +10%, the 40-hour rule

Base84 h × $28.00: $2,352.00
Weekend24 h × $28.00 × 10%: $67.20
Overtime8 h × $28.70 regular rate × 50%: $114.80

Gross pay84 h worked, before taxes and deductions

$2,534.00

Overtime is paid on a regular rate of $28.70, not $28.00, because under the FLSA the differentials count toward it.

The app shows each week’s total for free. These lines for a whole pay period, and the pay stub check, are Pro.

The next 52 weeks of this rotation, from Sun, Sep 27, 2026$68,664.03$1,320.46 a week on average

For the whole calendar year of Pitman 2-2-3, day by day and in pay, see its page.

It starts with the numbers from the home page’s example, Pitman 2-2-3 at $28.00 an hour with nights +15%, weekends +10% and overtime +50%, for the next pay period on the federal 40-hour rule. The September story on the home page uses the app’s default per-day rule, is paid on the day its period closes, and swaps the night of the 18th for an 8-hour morning, so its hours and totals come out differently. Everything here is gross, before taxes and deductions.

How each line is worked out

Base, night work, weekend and overtime are the same lines the app shows under Line items, so you can check each one against your pay stub on its own.

Base counts every hour you worked
Hours times your hourly rate. The hours are real elapsed time: on the night the clocks go back, a 7 PM to 7 AM shift lasts 13 h and every one of them is paid.
Night hours follow the clock
Every hour inside your night window gets the night differential, whatever the shift is called. A Friday night from 7 PM to 7 AM is 12 h, and 9 h of it falls inside a 10 PM to 7 AM window: at $28.00 and +15% that’s $37.80 on top of the base. An afternoon that ends at 11 PM has one night hour.
Weekend hours are split at midnight
The same Friday night has 7 h on Saturday, from midnight to 7 AM, and only those get the weekend differential: $19.60 at +10%. Sunday can have its own percentage; left alone, it pays the same as Saturday.
Two differentials on the same hour
Those 7 h are night work and weekend work at once. Add them up pays both, and the shift comes to $393.40. One premium per hour pays only the larger, and the shift comes to $373.80. The calculator asks only when the answer changes a number, as the app does.
Overtime is only the premium
The overtime line is overtime hours times the rate times your overtime percentage. The hours themselves are already in base, so time and a half is written +50%. Which hours count depends on the rule, below.

Four overtime rules

The app can’t know which one your employer uses, so it asks you. Pick the one on your contract or your pay stub.

A nomogram for shift pay, hours times the hourly rate: a line through 12 hours and $28.00 and a line through 8 hours and $42.00 cross the pay scale at the same point, $336.

Per dayAgainst the schedule, per dayThe app’s default: For each day, the hours worked beyond what the schedule planned. A Saturday you pick up is overtime in full. A shift canceled on Monday doesn’t cancel it out, because on a stub those are two different days.
40 hOver 40 h a weekFederal law, 29 U.S.C. §207: The hours past 40 in each workweek, Sunday to Saturday, counted in order: the shift that crosses the line has only its hours past it counted, and every shift after it is overtime in full.Each hour counts in the workweek it’s worked, as the law has it: a night that runs past Saturday midnight is split there, its Saturday hours in one week and its Sunday hours in the next. TurnoRest counts it this way from version 1.1; before, it counted the whole night in the week it started.
212 hOver 212 h in 28 daysFire, 29 CFR 553.230: The longer work period the §207(k) exemption allows fire departments. A Kelly 24/48 cycle that starts on a shift holds 10 shifts, 240 h in all, so 28 h of it is overtime.
171 hOver 171 h in 28 daysPolice, 29 CFR 553.230: The same exemption for law enforcement, with a lower line. The same Kelly cycle has 69 h of overtime. For both, set the day your department’s 28 days start.

Does shift differential apply to overtime?

Yes. Overtime is paid on the regular rate, differentials included.

Under the FLSA, time and a half is half the regular rate, not half your hourly rate, and the regular rate includes night differentials (29 CFR 778.207(b)). The DOL’s Fact Sheet #54 says the same for health care. A Saturday or Sunday premium counts too, unless it pays at least time and a half for that day (29 CFR 778.203). The calculator does this for the weekly, fire and police rules, the way the app does.

Sun, Sep 13 – Sat, Sep 19Pitman 2-2-3, 41 h with 4 nights, over 40 h a week. Each hour counts in the week it’s worked, so a night that runs past Saturday midnight is split there.

Base41 h × $28.00: $1,148.00
Differentials that countnight $121.80 + weekend $33.60: $155.40
Regular rate$1,303.40 ÷ 41 h: $31.79

Half of $28.00, 1 h$14.00

Half of the regular rate, 1 h$15.90

Nurse shift differential calculator

Registered nurses earned a median of $46.90 an hour in May 2025, according to the BLS. At the VA the night rate is in federal law. At UW Medical Center it’s in the union contract.

VA nursesFederal law, 38 U.S.C. §7453: 10% of the hourly rate on every hour of a tour with at least 4 hours between 6 PM and 6 AM. With fewer than 4, only the hours in that window. 25% on every hour of a tour that touches Saturday or Sunday.
UW Medical Center–MontlakeUnion contract, WSNA 2025–2027: $5 an hour on the night shift, 11 PM to 7 AM, and $4 an hour on weekends. Nurses permanently on evenings or nights keep the differential on paid time off.
A 12-hour night at $46.90: The VA’s 10% is $4.69 an hour, or $56 over the night. A flat $5 an hour on all 12 hours gives $60. The two meet at $50 an hour, and past that the percentage pays more.
The VA in the calculator: Open the calculator with the VA’s percentages at $46.90 an hour. Its night window runs from 7 PM to 7 AM, so a 7-to-7 night gets the differential on all 12 hours, as at the VA. A 7-to-7 day gets none here, and one hour, 6 to 7 PM, at the VA. Weekends come out lower. The calculator counts only the hours after Friday midnight, 7 of a Friday night’s 12, and the VA pays all 12.

12-hour shift pay calculator

DuPont, Pitman 2-2-3, Panama 2-2-3 and 4 on 4 off all average 42 hours a week. The 40-hour rule counts each fixed 7-day workweek on its own, Sunday to Saturday here (29 CFR 778.105), so overtime depends on how the cycle lands on the workweek. In 2026 DuPont’s runs from 155 to 632 hours, depending on day 1. Pitman 2-2-3 goes from 155 to 429 and Panama 2-2-3 from 208 to 520. 4 on 4 off never has a week over 48 hours and stays between 214 and 232.

Overtime hours and gross pay in 2026 for four 12-hour rotations, on the 40-hour rule
2026	Overtime	Gross
DuPontWeeks up to 60 h	468 h	$73,420
Pitman 2-2-3Weeks up to 48 h	160 h	$69,137
Panama 2-2-3Weeks up to 48 h	208 h	$66,220
4 on 4 offWeeks up to 48 h	232 h	$69,351

Day 1 on Monday, January 5, 2026, at $28 an hour with nights +15% and weekends +10%. Open the calculator on DuPont, Pitman 2-2-3, Panama 2-2-3 or 4 on 4 off with that day 1.

How the pay stub check works

You type in the gross from your stub. The app takes away its own figure for the same period and looks for the line items that add up to the gap.

Payroll rounds, so the app doesn’t flag a gap within 1% of the total, or $1 when that’s more. On the example’s $2,534.00 that allowance is $25.34, 54 minutes of pay at $28.00, so the calculator prints every gap to the cent instead of calling it a match.

To explain a gap it tries every combination of lines, one, two, three and all four, and the shortest one that adds up wins, because one missing line is likelier than two. On a tie it takes the one without base pay, since differentials are what stubs leave off, and then the one closest to the gap, so a line that matches to the cent beats one that only fits the allowance. A match tells you which line to ask payroll about first. The app can’t know that payroll left it off.

Base84 h: $2,352.00
Weekend24 h: $67.20
Overtime8 h: $114.80
Total: $2,534.00

Gross, before taxes and deductions. Bonuses aren’t included.

Pay stub

Gross on pay stub: $2,534.00
Check: The pay stub matches the figure to the cent.

The app’s Period close for Sun, Sep 27 – Sat, Oct 10, 2026, drawn with the calculator’s numbers, and a stub that left the night differential off.

Four made-up stubs for the example’s period, Sun, Sep 27 – Sat, Oct 10, 2026, where TurnoRest counts $2,534.00

Stub says $2,533.58The pay stub is $0.42 short of the figure: payroll rounding.
Stub says $2,509.00The pay stub is $25.00 short of the figure. The app allows 1% of the total for payroll rounding and doesn’t flag it, but a gap of whole dollars is worth checking against your hours.
Stub says $2,534.00The pay stub matches the figure to the cent.
Stub says $2,391.85A difference of −$142.15 these line items don’t explain.

What depends on your employer

The calculator doesn’t model the rules below, so it’s worth checking them in your contract or with payroll.

Daily overtime: California and a few other states also count overtime by the day, over 8 hours (California Labor Code §510). TurnoRest has no daily-hours rule; its per-day rule counts hours beyond your schedule.
Hospitals on 8 and 80: Some hospitals use 8 and 80: overtime after 8 hours in a day and after 80 in the 14-day period (29 CFR 778.601). On 12-hour shifts that is 4 hours of overtime on every shift. That rule isn’t in the app.
When a differential starts: TurnoRest pays the night differential hour by hour inside the window. Some contracts pay it for the whole shift once most of it is at night.
Holidays, bonuses, call-back: Holiday pay, bonuses, on-call and call-back pay, allowances and anything else on the stub aren’t in the count. A stub higher than the figure says so.
Taxes and deductions: Everything here is gross. There are no tax tables in the app, so it never works out a net amount.
Outside the US: These are US federal rules. In the UK the law doesn’t require overtime pay at all: the rate is whatever your contract says, as long as your average pay for all your hours stays above the National Minimum Wage (GOV.UK).

Questions

Is shift differential included in overtime pay?
Under federal law, yes: a night differential is part of the regular rate, and overtime is half of that rate on top of the hours. In the example week above that’s $15.90 of overtime premium instead of $14.00.
How is shift differential calculated?
As a percentage of your hourly rate, for the hours that fall in the differential’s window. 9 h at night at +15% of $28.00 is $37.80. If your contract gives a flat amount per hour, switch the field to $ and type it as it is.
Do shift differentials stack?
Only when your contract says so. After midnight on a Friday night the same hours are night work and weekend work. Some contracts pay both, others only the larger. The Friday night in the example comes to $393 with both and $374 with the larger.
Is shift differential taxed?
Yes. The IRS counts all pay for work as wages, however it’s measured, so a differential is taxed with the rest of your pay. The federal deduction for overtime, for the tax years 2025 to 2028, covers only the part above the regular rate, the “half” of time and a half.
Both rules are in IRS Publication 15.
Does shift differential apply to PTO?
Only if your employer’s policy or your contract says it does. The FLSA doesn’t require pay for time not worked, vacation included. The UW Medical Center–Montlake contract above pays the differential on paid time off to nurses permanently on evenings or nights.
The DOL says so on its vacation leave page.
Is shift differential required by law?
No federal law requires a night or weekend differential. It comes from your employer or your union contract, which is why every differential starts at zero in the app.
Do you get paid more for 12-hour shifts?
Not for the length alone. Federal overtime counts the week, so three 12-hour shifts make 36 hours and none of it is overtime. A fourth makes 48, and 8 of those hours are overtime. Some states count overtime by the day; the calculator doesn’t model those.
Do you get paid for the extra hour when daylight saving time ends?
Yes, when you’re paid by the hour. The FLSA counts every hour actually worked, and the clocks go back at 2 AM on November 1, 2026. A Saturday night from 7 PM to 7 AM lasts 13 hours. At the example’s $28, with nights +15% and weekends +10%, it pays $442, against $407 on a normal Saturday night. The extra hour counts toward the week’s 40 like any other. When the clocks go forward on March 14, 2027, the same night lasts 11 hours and pays $372.
The DOL counts the hours the same way in its Hours Worked Advisor.
Why is my pay period fourteen days and not the calendar week?
Payroll sets the period around payday, so it rarely lines up with a calendar week. Many payrolls close the period a few days before payday; this calculator takes that gap under Pay period, so its stub check compares the right days. The app ends each period on payday: in the app, enter the period’s last day as payday and its check covers the same days. Twice a month is the 1st to the 15th and the 16th to the end of the month. A night that crosses the end of a period is counted whole in the period it started in.
My shifts change every schedule. Can I use this?
The calculator works from a rotation, plus one change. In the app, a schedule that changes every posting goes in as a one-week pattern with no shifts, and each shift is added as it’s posted; pick Over 40 h a week as the overtime rule there, because under the per-day rule every added shift counts as overtime in full.
The support page has the steps for setting it up in the app.
What does the app add to this?
It follows your real schedule, including the shift you stayed late on or the Saturday you picked up. The pay follows every change, the Today screen shows this week’s total for free, and with Pro each pay period gets its line items and a stub check. Pro is $5.99 a month, $34.99 a year or $79.99 once, in the US.

This week’s pay is on the Today screen.

Put your rotation and your rate in once. The free version of TurnoRest shows this week’s pay on the Today screen and keeps it right as your shifts change.

Or point your iPhone’s camera at this code.

This week, on the Today screen

$1,379

44 h on the home page’s Pitman example, the week of Sep 13

Gross, on the app’s default overtime rule. The line items are Pro.