An employee works from 6pm until 2am. Their ordinary rate is £14 an hour, rising to £18 after 10pm. They take a 30-minute unpaid break. How much should you pay them?
Under a policy that pays the enhanced rate only for work inside the night window, the answer depends on when the break happened. A break before 10pm gives £121 gross pay. A break after 10pm gives £119. The shift length is the same; the paid time at each rate is different.
For a care home, security business or hospitality team, that small distinction can become a recurring payroll query. The useful record is one complete shift with a breakdown that explains which hours attracted which rate.
This guide shows how to calculate that breakdown. The figures are examples, not recommended pay rates. Use the employee’s contract, any applicable collective agreement and approved time records to establish what is payable.
Start with the agreement, then calculate the hours
Before multiplying hours by a rate, confirm which hours qualify. A label such as “night shift” does not tell payroll whether the premium applies to the whole shift, only a time window, or particular days.
Write down the ordinary hourly rate, the enhancement window and the method used. For example, an enhancement could be a fixed £18 hourly rate, £4 extra per hour, or a multiplier of the ordinary rate. These methods may produce different results when an employee’s basic rate changes.
UK night workers do not have a separate higher statutory minimum wage rate. The statutory night period used for working-time rules is also not automatically your contractual premium window. A company can use a 22:00 premium start in its pay agreement without making that a universal legal definition. See GOV.UK’s night-working guidance.
Bank-holiday arrangements also need to be clear to workers. Acas explains the employer’s role in communicating bank-holiday rules. Check the relevant agreement rather than assuming that every bank-holiday shift attracts the same uplift.
Worked example: a shift crossing the night-rate boundary
Take a shift from 18:00 on Monday 2 November 2026 to 02:00 on Tuesday 3 November. The ordinary rate is £14 an hour and the agreed night rate is £18 between 22:00 and 06:00. There is no overtime or unpaid break in this first example.
| Paid portion | Hours | Hourly rate | Gross pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday 18:00–22:00: ordinary | 4 | £14 | £56 |
| Monday 22:00–Tuesday 02:00: night | 4 | £18 | £72 |
| Total | 8 | £128 |
The £18 is the full enhanced hourly rate. It replaces the £14 rate for those four hours. Adding four hours at £18 on top of eight hours at £14 would pay the same time twice.
You do not need to create two separate employee shifts to explain this calculation. Keep the original start and finish together, then show the paid portions underneath. The calculator additionally separates portions at midnight so the dates remain visible.
Why unpaid break timings change the answer
Now add a 30-minute unpaid break to the same shift.
| When the unpaid break happens | Ordinary paid hours | Night paid hours | Gross shift pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21:00–21:30 | 3.5 | 4 | £121 |
| 23:00–23:30 | 4 | 3.5 | £119 |
| 21:45–22:15 | 3.75 | 3.75 | £120 |
A break crossing 22:00 removes 15 minutes from each rate. Deducting all 30 minutes from either rate would give a different answer.
Whether a break is paid depends on the employment contract. GOV.UK’s rest-break guidance explains that a rest break does not automatically have to be paid. A paid break should not be entered as an unpaid deduction in this calculator.
If the time record says only “30 minutes”, check when the break was taken before finalising a calculation that depends on its timing. Do not invent a time simply to make the software produce a total.
What happens when a shift crosses into the weekend?
Suppose an employee works Friday 20:00 to Saturday 04:00. The ordinary rate is £14 and the weekend rate is £17. There are no unpaid breaks, night enhancements or overtime in this example. The agreement applies the weekend rate to Saturday and Sunday hours from midnight.
The first four hours pay £56. The four hours after midnight pay £68. Total gross shift pay is £124.
Using the shift’s starting day for all eight hours would miss the Saturday portion. Using the finishing day for the whole shift would overstate it under this particular agreement.
Some agreements use a different definition, including whole-shift premiums. The widget models rates by the local date and time of each paid minute; it is not suitable for a whole-shift entitlement triggered by the starting time.
Bank-holiday pay: check the date and the overlap rule
Consider 20:00 on Christmas Eve to 04:00 on Christmas Day 2026. Assume £14 ordinary pay and an agreed £28 bank-holiday rate, applying only to Christmas Day hours. With no other enhancements or breaks, four hours at £14 plus four at £28 gives £168.
Check the employee’s holiday calendar. England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland have different bank-holiday calendars, and substitute days matter. The official UK bank-holiday list shows Christmas Day on Friday 25 December and the Boxing Day substitute holiday on Monday 28 December in 2026. Check whether your agreement also names an actual festive date separately.
The calculator asks you to select qualifying dates manually. It does not infer entitlement or automatically download a holiday calendar.
If a night premium also applies after midnight, decide which rule wins. The widget offers either bank holiday before weekend before night, or the highest matching hourly rate. Neither choice stacks those enhancements. Choose the method that matches the agreement; if your policy stacks them, this estimator is not suitable for that calculation.
How should overtime interact with a night premium?
First establish when overtime starts and how it is paid. Acas’s overtime guidance explains that there is no automatic legal right to overtime pay and that overtime hours and rates must be stated in the written employment particulars.
For illustration, ordinary pay of £14 with a 1.5 overtime multiplier gives a £21 overtime rate. If the night rate is £18, two possible agreed approaches are:
| Overlap policy | Calculation for an overlapping hour | Hourly rate |
|---|---|---|
| Higher resulting rate | Higher of £18 night pay or £21 overtime pay | £21 |
| Add the overtime uplift | £18 night rate + (£21 − £14) overtime uplift | £25 |
These are alternative policies, not two steps to apply together. Multiplying the £18 night rate by 1.5 would give £27, which is a different policy and is not modelled by this tool.
For a weekly overtime threshold, the widget needs the paid hours remaining before overtime starts within this shift. If the threshold is 40 hours and 36 qualifying hours have already been worked, enter 4. The calculator does not collect the rest of the week’s timesheets. Confirm which hours count under your agreement.
Overnight work when the clocks change
A shift described as 22:00–06:00 does not always contain eight elapsed hours. In the UK, clocks move forward in March and back in October. GOV.UK lists the clock-change dates.
For example, 22:00 on 24 October 2026 to 06:00 on 25 October spans nine elapsed hours. A 22:00–06:00 shift spanning the spring change contains seven. The widget counts elapsed minutes in Europe/London time, regardless of the device’s time zone.
The calculation still needs to match the agreed pay basis. A clock change does not let an estimator decide a contractual dispute. This tool also rejects start, finish or break-start times inside the repeated autumn hour because a local time alone cannot distinguish its two occurrences. Check the original timestamp and UTC offset for those cases.
A manager’s checklist before approving shift pay
- Confirm the employee, dates, approved paid-time basis and actual shift changes.
- Check unpaid break timings and remove overlapping or out-of-shift entries.
- Confirm the ordinary rate, eligibility for enhancements and relevant holiday calendar.
- Check the policy for overlapping rates and any overtime threshold already reached.
- Reconcile paid hours to the original record, then check that the pay portions add up to the total.
- Retain the agreement or rule version used, the calculation and the approval record so payroll can explain the payment later.
For a rate change, confirm its agreed effective date and how it applies to already-planned work. A scheduling system’s creation date is not a substitute for the employee’s contractual entitlement.
Minimum wage checks are a separate task. Extra pay for unsocial hours is excluded from minimum wage calculations, so a high enhanced total does not by itself demonstrate compliance. See GOV.UK’s guidance on what counts towards minimum wage pay.
From a one-shift check to a repeatable payroll process
The calculator helps explain one shift. For a regular payroll, the same decisions need to be applied consistently across staff, sites and pay periods, with clear review of exceptions.
Use the Workmax payroll hub for related employer guidance, explore scheduling and rota planning, or try the payroll demo to review the wider workflow. This educational calculator is separate from the product and does not confirm which automated pay rules are available in your account.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use this for a waking-night care shift?
Yes, for an hourly-paid waking-night shift where your agreement matches the tool’s time-window rules. Sleep-in arrangements, travel, mileage and other supplemental items need separate treatment and are outside this estimate.
Does the result show take-home pay or total employer cost?
No. It shows estimated gross pay for the shift, before employee deductions. Employer National Insurance, pension costs, holiday pay and other employment costs are not added.
Why might the line amounts differ by a penny from my spreadsheet?
The widget rounds each effective hourly rate to a penny, calculates the whole shift and rounds its total once. It then allocates pennies across the displayed portions so they reconcile. A spreadsheet that rounds every portion independently can produce a different result. Follow the rounding policy used by your payroll system when finalising pay.
