Manufacturing shift premium: second and third shift

Typical Manufacturing worker differentials

Ranges are the lowest and highest figures in the linked contracts, statutes and employer postings, not averages; your employer's rate is set by its own contract or policy. Figures reported only on Indeed or Reddit are described in the text as self-reported and never used in this table.

Price your own week

Preloaded with the national median wage and a mid-range differential from the table; change any field.

How overtime works for manufacturing workers

Manufacturing is under the standard FLSA rule: time and a half after 40 hours in a workweek (29 U.S.C. 207(a)), with no federal daily overtime, so a 12-hour rotation is straight time until the week passes 40. California pays daily overtime at 1.5× after 8 hours and 2× after 12. The overtime rate must be computed on the regular rate including the shift premium, whether it is a percentage or cents per hour (29 CFR 778.207(b)). The UAW–GM agreement goes one step further than the statute: paragraph 89 applies the night premium to night shift earnings including overtime premium pay, so the 10% is paid on the overtime hours' full time-and-a-half earnings, and the Sandvik USW contract's Article 20 pays its premium on overtime hours too.

Detroit Three percentages versus transplant flat rates

The Detroit Three pay shift premium as a percentage. The 2023 UAW–GM National Agreement, paragraph 89, pays five percent for shifts starting between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. and ten percent for shifts starting between 7 p.m. and 4:45 a.m., applied to night shift earnings including overtime premium pay. The UAW–Stellantis agreement pays five and ten percent respectively. The Daimler Truck agreement negotiated by UAW Local 10 in Atlanta describes a shift premium now common at 7.5%.

Transplants post flat amounts. Toyota's West Virginia, Indiana, Missouri and Tennessee plants advertise a $1.50 an hour shift premium for second, third and fourth shifts; Toyota Texas advertises $0.80. On the BLS median of $21.47 for assemblers and fabricators, GM's 10% is $2.15 an hour and Toyota's $1.50 is 7%, so the models are closer than they look, but the percentage rises with every wage increase and the flat rate does not.

Continuous-process plants on 12-hour rotations often pay a small flat differential or none. The USW Local 12-369 contract at Sandvik pays fifty cents for swing and seventy-five cents for graveyard on 8-hour shifts, and states that 12-hour shift employees get no day or night shift differential, because the rotation puts everyone through nights equally. The large chemical companies do not publish their premiums and we found no figure we could cite.

Weekends, holidays and the premium on top

The UAW–GM agreement pays double time for hours worked on Sundays and holidays under paragraph 86, and in seven-day operations paragraph 87 pays two and a half times for the first eight holiday hours. Paragraph 205a includes the night premium in the computation of holiday pay, so a third-shift worker's holiday pay carries the 10%. Toyota's Missouri and Tennessee plants advertise the $1.50 premium for weekend shifts as well as PM shifts.

Percentage premiums that apply to overtime earnings compound: a third-shift GM worker's overtime hour is base times 1.5 times 1.10, not base times 1.5 plus a flat add-on. That is more than the FLSA requires, which is only that the premium be inside the regular rate, but it is the contract, and it is the number to check on an overtime stub.

Negotiating and checking your paystub

Plant paystubs are usually right on the percentage and wrong on what it applies to.

• —Confirm the shift-start windows that trigger each premium; GM keys it to when the shift starts, not to hours worked at night.
• —Check whether the premium applies to overtime earnings (GM paragraph 89, Sandvik Article 20) or only to straight-time hours; the difference is 10% of your overtime pay.
• —On a 12-hour rotation, ask whether any differential is paid at all; some contracts, like Sandvik's, explicitly pay none on 12s.
• —Holiday pay under GM includes the night premium (paragraph 205a); if yours does not, that is a contract question, not a legal one.

FAQ

Sources

1. BLS OES Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators (51-2090), May 2025 national median
2. UAW–GM National Agreement 2023, paragraphs 86–89 and 205a
3. UAW–Stellantis PMP agreement 2023, section 85(a)
4. UAW Local 10 / Daimler Truck 2024 highlights
5. Toyota West Virginia careers
6. Toyota Texas careers
7. USW Local 12-369 / Sandvik CBA, Art. 20
8. 29 U.S.C. 207 (FLSA overtime)
9. 29 CFR 778.207: shift differentials in the regular rate
10. California DIR overtime FAQ

BLS medians are the May 2025 national OES estimates. Contract figures are as written in the linked agreements on the date above; check the current agreement for your employer. Last reviewed 2026-08-27.