Clocks Go Back on a Night Shift: Are You Paid for 9 Hours?

A night-shift worker clocks in at 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 31, 2026, and clocks out at 6 a.m. on Sunday. The schedule says eight hours. At 2 a.m., though, US clocks fall back to 1 a.m., and the hour between 1 and 2 runs twice. By the end of the shift the worker has been on the job for nine hours. A timesheet that subtracts the start time from the end time still reads eight. The Department of Labor has published a worked example of a graveyard shift on this night, and it settles which number counts.

Nine, eight or seven hours on one schedule

US clocks change at 2 a.m. local time. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) explains the fall change. In its words, “at 2 a.m. the local time becomes 1 a.m. and that hour is repeated, so there is an extra hour in that day.” In spring the clock jumps from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m., “so there is one less hour in that day.” In 2026 daylight saving time ends on November 1. The next spring change, March 14, 2027, is calculated from the rule that it begins on the second Sunday in March.

For example, if a nonexempt worker earns $20 an hour and works the full 10 p.m.–6 a.m. shift, the three kinds of night compare like this:

Assumed $20 rate, no premiums. Hour counts follow the US Department of Labor’s hours-worked advisor; dates from NIST (2027 date calculated).

The Department of Labor walks through its own case in the FLSA Hours Worked Advisor. Its example is a graveyard shift from 11:00 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. with a 30-minute lunch, normally 8 hours. Its answer is 7 hours worked when daylight saving time begins and 9 when it ends, assuming the employee works the full scheduled shift.

The federal rule and who it covers

Under the FLSA, pay follows “hours worked,” not the hours printed on a schedule. The advisor states the principle in one line: “The FLSA requires that employees must be credited with all of the hours actually worked.” Fact Sheet #22 summarizes the department’s hours-worked rules in 29 CFR Part 785. It adds that “work not requested but suffered or permitted to be performed is work time that must be paid for by the employer.” The repeated hour in November is ordinary working time under that standard.

That rule protects nonexempt employees, the workers entitled to minimum wage and overtime under the FLSA. Exempt employees paid on a salary basis sit outside the hour-by-hour math. Under 29 CFR 541.602, a salary basis means the employee “regularly receives each pay period on a weekly, or less frequent basis, a predetermined amount.” That amount is “not subject to reduction because of variations in the quality or quantity of the work performed.”

An extra hour in November or a missing one in March leaves that amount unchanged, and an exempt employee earns no overtime for it. Being paid a salary does not by itself make someone exempt; duties and salary-level tests also apply.

When the ninth hour becomes overtime

Overtime is counted by the workweek, not by the shift. Fact Sheet #23 defines a workweek as “a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods.” Hours over 40 in that period must be paid “at a rate not less than time and one-half” the regular rate.

For example, suppose the same $20-an-hour worker has five scheduled 8-hour night shifts in one workweek. One of them is the fall change night, so the week totals 41 hours. The first 40 hours pay $800. The 41st hour is paid at $30, which is $20 × 1.5, so the week comes to $830. An ordinary week of five 8-hour nights pays $800, so the extra hour adds $30 rather than the $20 it would earn at the straight rate.

The spring week runs the other way. With a 7-hour shift on March 14, 2027, plus four ordinary 8-hour nights, the week totals 39 hours, or $780 at $20 an hour. No overtime is due.

Both examples assume every shift sits inside the same fixed workweek and that no other premiums apply. A night shift crosses two calendar dates. Where the employer’s 168-hour workweek begins therefore decides which week gets the extra hour. If that week stays at 40 hours or fewer, the extra hour is paid at the regular rate.

The UK and EU change a week earlier

If you work nights in Britain or elsewhere in Europe, the extra hour arrives first. GOV.UK lists the UK change for 25 October 2026, and for 31 October 2027 the following year. In the EU, Directive 2000/84/EC ends summer time in every member state “at 1.00 a.m., Greenwich Mean Time, on the last Sunday in October.” In 2026 that is also 25 October.

The UK legal test differs from the US one. The floor is the National Minimum Wage. From April 2026 the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour. The rate is £10.85 for ages 18 to 20 and £8.00 for under-18s and apprentices.

GOV.UK’s guidance on which working hours count describes the rule for salaried hours work. For that category it counts time spent at the workplace working and time at the workplace when the worker is required to be available for work. That description is given for salaried hours work; it is not a statement about hourly-paid shifts.

The guidance does not mention clock changes. For a worker on salaried hours, a ninth hour spent working on 25 October fits its description of time at the workplace working, so it counts when pay is checked against the minimum. The minimum-wage rules set an hourly floor, though, not a promise that every extra hour earns the contract rate. Pay above that floor depends on the employment contract.

Checking the hours on a US pay stub

1. Find the night you worked across 2 a.m. on November 1, 2026. That is the shift running from October 31 into November 1. It is the only shift where the clock span and the elapsed time differ.
2. Compare elapsed hours with the clock span. If you worked a full 10 p.m.–6 a.m. shift, your stub should show 9 hours for the fall night and 7 for the spring night. A line showing 8 suggests the system subtracted clock times instead of counting elapsed time.
3. Add up your hours for the workweek. If the extra hour took you past 40, the hour above 40 should appear at the overtime rate, $30 in the $20 example.
4. Check whether your shift was cut short. An employer may end the shift an hour early to hold it at 8 hours. If your employer sent you home early, you are owed the hours you actually worked, and the stub should match them.
5. Keep your punch times for that night. If your stub and your timesheet disagree, raise it with payroll using those times.

UK workers should instead check the night of 24–25 October against their contract and the minimum wage. The 40-hour overtime rule above is US federal law.

What federal law does not settle

The spring hour is the clearest gap. Because the FLSA standard is hours actually worked, it does not oblige employers to pay for the hour that vanishes in March. Some employers, union agreements or state laws pay more, for instance by paying the usual 8 hours on the spring night. The federal rule is a floor beneath those arrangements, and state wage rules are not covered here.

Night premiums are a separate matter. The Department of Labor says the FLSA “does not require extra pay for night work”; a night differential is “a matter of agreement between the employer and the employee.” Whether a differential applies to the repeated hour depends on that agreement.