Additional pay provided to employees who work unsociable or irregular hours.
A shift allowance is additional compensation paid to employees who work shifts outside standard working hours — night shifts, weekends, early starts or public holidays. In the UK it is a contractual payment, not a statutory one: the National Minimum Wage applies to night workers but there is no higher night working rate, so rates and eligibility come from the employment contract or a collective agreement. What the law does regulate closely is the hours themselves.
The single most common misunderstanding about shift allowances is that unsociable hours attract a legally required uplift. They do not. The National Minimum Wage applies to night workers, but there is not a higher night working rate. An employer paying exactly the minimum wage for a shift that runs through the small hours is meeting its wage obligation in full.
That makes the shift allowance a matter of contract. Rates, which shifts qualify, whether the allowance is a flat sum per shift or a percentage uplift on the hourly rate, and whether it is pensionable are all set by the employment contract or a collective agreement rather than by statute. Two employers in the same sector can pay very differently for the same rota and both be compliant.
What this does not mean is that night work is lightly regulated. The absence of a premium sits alongside a fairly prescriptive set of rules about who counts as a night worker, how many hours they may work, and what an employer must offer them — and those rules are not contractual at all.
Staff who regularly work at least 3 hours during the night period are night workers. The night period is 11pm to 6am unless the worker and employer agree a different one, and any alternative must be 7 hours long, must include midnight to 5am, and must be agreed in writing. Staff may also be night workers where a collective agreement — a trade union agreement, for example — states that their work is night work.
The definition matters more than the label a rota gives someone, because the protections that follow attach to the statutory definition rather than to whatever the shift is called internally. A worker on an "evening" shift that regularly runs three hours past 11pm is a night worker whether or not the rota says so.
| Test | Rule |
|---|---|
| Default night period | 11pm to 6am |
| Agreed alternative period | 7 hours long, must include midnight to 5am, agreed in writing |
| Who is a night worker | Regularly works at least 3 hours during the night period |
Night workers must not work more than an average of 8 hours in a 24-hour period. The average is usually calculated over 17 weeks, though it can run over a longer period of up to 52 weeks where the workers and the employer agree, for example by collective agreement. Regular overtime is included in that average; occasional overtime is not.
Workers cannot opt out of this limit. That is the point on which night-shift scheduling most often goes wrong in practice, because a rota can sit comfortably inside the limit on paper and breach it once habitual overtime is counted in. Additional rules apply to staff aged 16 or 17, who cannot work between midnight and 4am.
Night work limit = no more than an average of 8 hours worked in any 24-hour period, averaged over 17 weeks (extendable to 52 weeks by agreement), including regular but not occasional overtime.
Where a shift involves sleeping, how much of it attracts the National Minimum Wage depends on what the worker is expected to do for most of it. A worker expected to sleep for most of a sleep-in shift, such as a care worker, and provided with suitable sleeping facilities, gets the minimum wage only for the periods when they are awake to perform tasks. A worker expected to work for most of a shift gets it for the whole shift, even if they are allowed to sleep between tasks.
Employers must offer workers a free health assessment before they become a night worker, and must offer regular assessments afterwards. Workers do not have to accept. How often assessments are repeated depends on the results for each worker, and the assessment can take various forms — a questionnaire written with input from a health professional, for instance.
If a health professional confirms that night working has affected a worker's health, the employer must find them other suitable work where possible. Employers must keep confidential records of the health assessments for 2 years, along with the dates on which assessments were offered to workers who did not want one.
No. The National Minimum Wage applies to night workers, but there is no higher night working rate, so there is no statutory requirement to pay extra for unsociable hours. Shift allowances are contractual — their rate, the shifts that qualify and whether they are pensionable are set by the employment contract or a collective agreement.
Someone who regularly works at least 3 hours during the night period. The night period is 11pm to 6am by default. A worker and employer can agree a different period, but it must be 7 hours long, must include midnight to 5am, and must be agreed in writing. A collective agreement can also state that particular work is night work.
No more than an average of 8 hours in any 24-hour period. That average is normally calculated over 17 weeks, and can be extended to as much as 52 weeks if the workers and employer agree. Regular overtime counts towards the average but occasional overtime does not, and workers cannot opt out of the limit.
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