Shift Pay Calculator

How shift pay is calculated

Your gross pay for a period is the sum of three parts. Getting each one right matters most when you work rotating shifts, long tours, or nights — where overtime and premiums add up quickly.

1. Base pay

Your regular hours multiplied by your hourly rate. For shift work, multiply the number of shifts by the hours per shift to get total hours, then subtract any hours paid at the overtime rate.

2. Overtime

Hours beyond your threshold are paid at a higher rate — usually time-and-a-half (1.5×) or double time (2×). Patterns built on 12-hour or 24-hour shifts, like DuPont or 24/48, often push weekly hours past 40, so overtime is a real part of take-home pay. Enter the overtime hours and pick the multiplier.

3. Night differential

Many employers add a premium for hours worked at night — a percentage on top of your base rate. If you run permanent nights or a rotating pattern with night blocks, enter your night hours and the percentage to see the premium added to your total.

The calculator shows a gross estimate before tax and deductions. Always confirm overtime thresholds and night rules against your own contract or local labour law.

Set up the calculation before you start

Start with a pay period that matches the information you have. If your pay slip is weekly, enter one week of hours; if it is biweekly, use the full two-week period and make sure the overtime rule in your agreement is also measured over that period. Do not count paid leave, unpaid breaks, on-call time, or holiday premiums as regular worked hours unless your employer's policy says they belong in that field.

Separate regular and overtime hours

The calculator treats overtime as a separate set of hours, rather than adding a premium on top of every regular hour. For example, if you worked 48 hours at $20 per hour and your agreement pays eight of those hours at 1.5×, enter 40 regular hours and 8 overtime hours. That produces $800 in base pay plus $240 in overtime pay, before any night premium or deductions. If your employer uses daily overtime, consecutive-day overtime, or a collective-agreement rule, split the hours according to that rule first.

Apply a night premium only to eligible hours

A night differential is commonly calculated on the eligible night hours, not on every hour in the pay period. If a $20 hourly rate has a 10% night premium and 24 eligible night hours, the premium is $48. Whether overtime hours also earn that premium, and whether the premium is a flat amount or percentage, depends on your employer, contract, and local rules. Check the written policy before treating the result as a payroll figure.

Common checks before comparing with a pay slip

• Confirm the hourly rate is the rate for this pay period, including any negotiated change.
• Check whether unpaid meal breaks have already been removed from the hours entered.
• Keep holiday pay, bonuses, shift allowances, and reimbursements separate unless your policy includes them in gross wages.
• Compare gross pay before tax, insurance, pension, union dues, and other deductions.

This calculator is a planning and checking tool, not payroll, tax, or legal advice. If the estimate and a pay slip differ, ask payroll which hours, premiums, and overtime threshold were applied, then use the answer to update the calculation. For the rota behind your pay, use the shift pattern guides to map hours across a full cycle.