12 Hour Shift Pay Calculator

What three 12-hour shifts pay in a week

A 12-hour shift is a long day and a short week. Three of them make 36 hours, which is 90 percent of a standard week and, at $30 an hour, $1,080 before tax. Nothing in that week is overtime under the federal rule, because the total stays under 40 hours. That is the trade a 12-hour schedule offers: four days off in exchange for a paycheck that is 10 percent smaller than a 40-hour week at the same rate.

The arithmetic is plain. Paid hours equal shift length times shifts worked, so 3 x 12 = 36 and 4 x 12 = 48. The first schedule sits below the overtime line and the second crosses it by 8 hours. Most 12-hour patterns in hospitals, plants, dispatch centers and security work run one of those two shapes, with the four-shift version often built as a 4 on 4 off rotation that averages 42 hours a week rather than 48 in every week.

Knowing which shape you are on matters more than the hourly rate in some months, because a single extra shift can move 12 hours from straight time to time and a half. The calculator above prices both and shows the yearly difference, which is where the schedule decision gets made.

These figures use the 40-hour federal rule, with hours past 40 paid at time and a half. A hospital under the 8 and 80 rule pays more for the same schedule, which the next section covers.

Where overtime starts under the FLSA

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires covered, non-exempt employers to pay at least one and a half times an employee's regular rate for hours worked past 40 in a workweek, as the U.S. Department of Labor sets out in Fact Sheet #23 (DOL, 2019). A workweek is a fixed, regularly recurring 168-hour period, and it does not have to match the calendar week. Hours cannot be averaged across two weeks to dodge the premium.

Two consequences follow for anyone working twelves. First, the length of a single shift does not create overtime by itself: a 12-hour Tuesday is 12 straight hours under federal law, and the premium only starts when the week passes 40. Second, the FLSA does not require extra pay for nights, weekends or holidays. The DOL says as much on its overtime pay page: extra pay for night and weekend work is a matter of agreement, not federal statute.

So a nurse on three twelves can work 36 hours every week for a year and never trigger federal overtime, while a tech on four twelves collects 8 overtime hours every week. Same shift length, same hourly rate, different paycheck by roughly 45 percent.

The 8 and 80 rule for hospitals and nursing homes

Hospitals and residential care establishments have a second option under section 7(j) of the FLSA. With a prior agreement with employees, they can use a fixed 14-day work period and pay overtime for hours over 8 in any workday and over 80 in the period, a structure the DOL describes in Fact Sheet #54 and 29 CFR 778.601. Daily premium pay can be credited toward the 80-hour test, so the same hours are not paid twice.

For a 12-hour shift the effect is immediate: every shift carries 4 hours past the 8-hour daily line. Six shifts in 14 days come to 72 hours, and 24 of them are overtime even though the week averages 36 hours. Under the 40-hour rule that same schedule pays no overtime at all. At $30 an hour the difference is $2,520 against $2,160 for the 14-day period, or $65,520 against $56,160 across the year. Eight shifts in the period push the totals to $3,360 and $87,360 a year, against $81,120 under the weekly rule.

An employer cannot mix systems for one employee, and the 14-day period has to be fixed and recurring. Changing it permanently requires paying the better of the old and new calculations for the period of the change, per the same fact sheet.

The 7-shift row is the awkward one: 84 hours split as 48 and 36 gives 8 weekly overtime hours under the 40-hour rule but 28 under 8 and 80, because the daily premiums dominate. The calculator switches between the two systems so you can see which one your employer should be running.

Shift differentials and the regular rate

Overtime is paid on the regular rate, not on the base wage, and the regular rate includes shift differentials and non-discretionary bonuses. The DOL calls the failure to include them one of the common errors it finds in health care payroll (Fact Sheet #54, DOL Wage and Hour Division). A $3 night differential on a $30 base produces a $33 regular rate, and overtime on that shift costs $49.50 an hour rather than $45.

On three twelves the differential alone is worth $108 a week, $5,616 a year, because all 36 hours carry it. On four twelves the same $3 adds $144 of straight time plus $36 of overtime premium, or $180 a week. The gap between the two schedules widens once the differential is in play, which is why night crews sometimes prefer the longer week even when the base math looks close.

The FLSA does not require a differential for night or weekend work, so the amount is set by contract, policy or a union agreement. Once it is paid, though, it belongs in the regular rate for every overtime hour in that workweek, including hours worked at a different shift on another day.

Four worked examples at $30 an hour

These four cases use a $30 base rate, a 1.5 overtime multiplier and 52 paid weeks. They are the shapes most 12-hour schedules fall into, and each one is reproducible in the calculator above.

Three twelves, no differential. 36 hours, all straight time: $1,080 a week and $56,160 a year. The effective hourly rate stays at $30 because no premium is earned.

Four twelves, no differential. 48 hours split as 40 at $30 and 8 at $45: $1,200 plus $360 equals $1,560 a week, or $81,120 a year. Divide by 2,496 paid hours and the effective rate is $32.50, the 8.3 percent lift that overtime gives a 48-hour week.

Three twelves with a $3 night differential. The regular rate becomes $33, so 36 hours pay $1,188 a week and $61,776 a year. Overtime, if any appeared, would be priced at $49.50.

Six twelves in 14 days under 8 and 80. 72 hours with 24 at the premium rate: 48 x $30 plus 24 x $45 equals $2,520 per period, which annualizes to $65,520. The 40-hour rule would pay $56,160 for the same shifts, so the choice of system is worth $9,360 a year to the employee.

Annual pay, PTO and the 2,080-hour year

A full-time year is usually quoted as 2,080 hours, which is 40 hours times 52 weeks. A 12-hour schedule does not hit that number. Three twelves is 1,872 hours and four twelves is 2,496, so the same job title can carry a 10 percent discount or a 20 percent premium against the 2,080 baseline depending on the rotation.

Paid time off is where the shift length bites. An 80-hour PTO bank covers 6.67 twelves, not 10 days, so a worker who calls out for a single shift spends 12 hours of the bank. Benefit accruals quoted in hours, such as sick leave or a 401(k) match on hours worked, also move with the schedule: 1,872 hours earns less match than 2,080 at the same percentage.

Unpaid meal breaks are the other quiet deduction. A 12-hour shift with a 30-minute unpaid break pays 11.5 hours, and the calculator's shift length field should hold the paid figure. Over a year of three shifts a week, that half hour is 78 unpaid hours, or $2,340 at $30, and it never shows up in a weekly total that assumes 12 paid hours.

State rules that change a 12-hour paycheck

Federal law is the floor, and several states sit above it. California pays overtime after 8 hours in a day, not just after 40 in a week: one and a half times the regular rate for hours 9 through 12, and double time beyond 12, under Labor Code section 510 as summarized by the Department of Industrial Relations. A 12-hour shift there is 8 straight hours plus 4 at time and a half, worth $420 at a $30 base instead of $360.

Three such shifts pay $1,260 a week and $65,520 a year in California, against $56,160 under the federal weekly rule. California also allows health care employers to adopt an alternative workweek or a 14-day period, but the daily premium survives those arrangements, so the 12-hour shift still carries 4 premium hours. States with their own daily overtime rules, such as Colorado and Nevada, change the total in smaller ways.

Where a state standard and the federal standard both apply, the employee gets the higher of the two. The calculator does not model state law directly: run it once with the federal 40-hour rule and once with the 8 and 80 rule, then compare against your state's daily threshold by hand.

Reading the calculator fields

Five inputs drive the result. Hourly rate is the base wage before any differential. Shift differential adds a flat dollar amount per hour to every paid hour, which is how night and weekend premiums usually work. Shift length should be paid hours, so subtract unpaid breaks first. Shifts per week is the count in a typical week, and it accepts halves for rotations that average 3.5 shifts. The overtime rule selector switches between the 40-hour workweek and the hospital 8 and 80 system.

The output panel returns paid hours a week, straight and overtime hours, straight time pay, overtime pay, the weekly total, the projected total for the number of weeks chosen, and the effective hourly rate. Under 8 and 80 the weekly rows become 14-day rows, because that is the period the rule measures.

What the tool leaves out: income tax and payroll withholding, which depend on your W-4 and state; multiple rates in one week, which require a weighted average regular rate; PTO and holiday pay, which count as paid hours but not hours worked; and tipped credit rules. Treat the annual figure as gross pay before deductions, and check a real pay stub against it before relying on the number for a budget.