Do Night Shift Workers Get Paid for the Extra Hour When Clocks Fall Back?

Planning the long night itself?

Read the fall-back guide for caffeine, naps and sleep timing. On a longer night the caffeine question matters more: 13 hours on shift? Here's when to stop caffeine.

Hours actually worked must be credited

The US Department of Labor's eLaws FLSA Hours Worked Advisor puts it plainly: when daylight saving time ends, graveyard-shift employees work an extra hour, and the FLSA requires employers to credit all hours actually worked. Its own example is a scheduled 8-hour graveyard shift that becomes 9 hours worked on the fall-back night. DOL Fact Sheet #53 spells out the same rules for health care employers, and also covers rounding and paid interrupted meal breaks.

Who this applies to

This is about non-exempt employees, who are usually paid hourly. If you're salaried and exempt, you're generally paid a fixed salary, so an extra hour doesn't change your pay. This page can't classify you. If you don't know your status, ask payroll or HR.

Overtime is counted per workweek

Federal overtime isn't counted day by day. Under 29 U.S.C. § 207, overtime is 1.5× the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. The workweek is a fixed, regularly recurring period of 168 hours (29 CFR 778.105). The fall-back hour counts toward that total like any other hour. It's overtime only if it pushes your workweek over 40, unless one of the exceptions in the next section applies.

The arithmetic, with no wages involved: three 12-hour shifts make 36 hours, and 36 + 1 = 37, so there's no federal weekly overtime. Four 12-hour shifts make 48, and 48 + 1 = 49. Under the federal weekly rule, the hours past 40 are overtime hours, including the extra one if it lands there.

Hospitals and nursing facilities: the “8 and 80” system

Hospitals and residential care facilities can use a different overtime system. Under section 7(j) of the FLSA, an employer and its employees can agree in advance to a 14-day period instead of the usual 7-day workweek. Overtime is then due for hours over 8 in a workday and over 80 in the period. This is the system known as “8 and 80.” An employer can't use both systems for the same employee. (See DOL Fact Sheet #54 and 29 CFR 778.601.)

In plain words: under 8 and 80, every hour past 8 in a workday is an overtime hour. On a 12-hour night, hours 9 through 12 already are, and so is the fall-back hour, the 13th. If your facility is on the standard 40-hour workweek instead, the weekly arithmetic above applies.

Not sure which system your facility uses? Ask HR or payroll whether you're on the standard workweek or 8 and 80, and how they define your workday, before the November 1 weekend. That way you know what to check on your timecard.

States with daily overtime

Some states count overtime by the day, not just by the week. California is the clearest example. Per the California Department of Industrial Relations overtime FAQ, overtime is due after 8 hours in a workday, and double time after 12. Alternative workweek schedules, which are common for 3×12 hospital schedules, can change that daily threshold. Outside California, check your state labor office's rules rather than assuming the federal rule is the whole answer.

Employer policy and union contracts

Federal law is the floor, not the ceiling, and employers write their own rules on top of it. Two public examples: the University of Missouri's HR-218 policy pays hourly staff premium pay for the extra fall hour when it takes the workweek past 40 (or past the FLSA standard used for certain hospital employees). A San Mateo County memo says most full-time employees get the extra hour at time and a half, while part-time employees whose week stays at or under 40 hours are paid straight time for it. These are examples of what some employers do, not the rule. Union contracts can set their own premiums, and what coworkers report varies widely: straight time, 1.5×, or double time. Your policy or contract controls.

Night differential

The extra hour is a night hour. If your job pays a night differential, whether it applies to that hour depends on your employer's policy, because federal law doesn't set differentials. Ask payroll.