Shift differential

[lifeisgood2024]

Hi all - 

This is just my 2nd post here - I looked over topics to see where to place this - please move if you feel appropriate. Thank you. 🙂

I've been a nurse for over 12 years and I should know the answer to this but maybe someone on here can explain it better to my brain than I can. I get that shift diff is a separate line item on our pay stubs, and they have to do that for HR/payroll purposes, but when I see it, it seems like I'm getting paid less than I would if it was added into my base pay. 

To me, if I'm getting $10 dollars an hour and working 36 hours I'm getting 360. 

Then 36 hours x 2 dollar shift differential is $72. And then my gross pay is 360 plus 72, which is 432. Then they do the benefits, other taxes, etc. 

To me, it looks like I'm getting more if they just gave me 12 bucks an hour, and I've tried to calculate it several different times with my numbers and it always comes up higher than when the numbers are separated out. 

Am I losing my mind? Shouldn't the numbers be the same? Isn't it all the same amount of money but it's just broken down? 

Thank you for your help with this. I don't have others in my life to bounce this off of and I just want to be sure I'm not losing my mind before I talk to HR. Be safe out there. ❤️ 

LIG2024

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Do you get shift differential for the entire shift or only between certain hours? I've worked with employers who did it two different ways:

1. Shift diff was specific to the time being worked. So you got evening shift diff from 3pm to 11pm and night shift diff from 11pm to 7am. Because I worked 6:30am to 3pm here, I got 0.5 hours of night shift differential every day even though my shift was considered day shift.

2. You get the shift diff for your entire shift, but it's the amount for where the majority of your shift was worked. So if you work 11a-11p, you have 4 hours on day shift and 8 hours on evening shift. Since most of the hours fall into evening shift, you get evening shift diff for the entire 12 hours. Someone who works 3a-3p works 4 hours on night shift and 8 hours on day shift, so they get zero shift diff for their entire shift.

I wouldn't be surprised if your employer uses option 1, and that's why you can't make the numbers match in your example by using $12/hour, because it's not always $12/hour. Sometimes it's $12, and sometimes it's $10.

Easy way to check is to look at your hours of "regular" or base pay and your hours for "shift diff" pay and see if the hours are the exact same. If they're not, then not all of your hours are qualifying to be paid the shift diff.