Retail and grocery shift differential: overnight and Sunday pay

Typical Retail & grocery 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 retail & grocery workers

Retail and grocery are under the standard FLSA rule: time and a half after 40 hours in a workweek (29 U.S.C. 207(a); DOL Fact Sheet #23), with no federal daily overtime and no federal Sunday or holiday premium. California pays daily overtime at 1.5× after 8 hours and 2× after 12. Rhode Island still requires at least one and one-half times the regular rate for Sunday and holiday work in retail; Massachusetts phased its retail Sunday and holiday premium out on 1 January 2023. Any night premium must be inside the regular rate that overtime is computed on (29 CFR 778.207(b)); the UFCW 400 Kroger contract's clause saying the premium is not used in the calculation of overtime is overridden by the FLSA for covered employees.

Who publishes a premium and who doesn't

Grocery contracts are the citable source. UFCW Local 400's 2024 Kroger West Virginia agreement raised the night premium to $2.00 an hour for work between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., from $1.25. UFCW 1059's 2022 Kroger Columbus agreement pays $2.00 an hour when at least half the shift falls between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. An older Kroger Dayton contract with UFCW 75 paid a one-dollar premium for the same window, which is where the low end of the table comes from.

Among big-box retailers only Target publishes a differential on its own domain, and only for supply-chain roles: $2.00 to $3.50 an hour at its distribution centers. Target's overnight inbound stocking posting in New York City lists $19.25 an hour with no differential stated; a self-reported figure on r/Target puts the overnight premium at $3. Walmart has no corporate page on the subject; self-reported figures on Reddit describe $1.50 an hour nationwide, and older Indeed answers describe $0.50 to $1.25. We found no published figure for Home Depot.

On the BLS median of $17.95 for stockers and order fillers ($17.03 for retail salespersons), a $2.00 premium is an 11% raise for overnight hours, which is why overnight stocking is the best-paid entry-level hourly role in most stores. It only applies to hours inside the window, so a 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift earns it for four hours under a 10 p.m. start.

Sundays and holidays

Sunday premium survives mainly in union grocery and at Costco. The Costco–Teamsters national agreement for 2025–28 pays a Sunday premium of one point five times the rate. Stop and Shop's UFCW 919 agreement pays time and a half on Sundays for full-time employees. Kroger West Virginia pays Sunday time and a half only to employees hired before 1987, which is how most grocery chains have retired it: grandfathered, not removed.

Holiday pay is similar. Costco pays time and a half for hours worked in addition to the non-worked holiday allowance, or an extra day off. Kroger Dayton's contract paid time and a half plus holiday pay. State law adds little: Rhode Island still mandates at least time and a half for Sunday and holiday retail work, while Massachusetts finished phasing its premium out in 2023 and no federal rule exists.

Negotiating and checking your paystub

Retail premiums are small and window-based; the checks are about the window.

• —Ask for the overnight premium and its window in writing; $2.00 for 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. is not $2.00 for a 6 p.m. start.
• —Check whether the premium applies to the whole shift when most of it is overnight (Kroger Columbus's half-the-shift rule) or hour by hour.
• —In an overtime week, the overtime rate should include the premium; a contract clause saying otherwise does not override the FLSA.
• —If you were hired under a grandfathered Sunday premium, confirm it still shows on Sunday hours after any contract renewal.

FAQ

Sources

1. BLS OES Stockers and Order Fillers (53-7065), May 2025 national median
2. BLS OES Retail Salespersons (41-2031), May 2025 national median
3. UFCW 400 / Kroger West Virginia 2024 contract highlights
4. UFCW 1059 / Kroger Columbus 2022 tentative agreement
5. UFCW 75 / Kroger Dayton CBA 2012–15
6. Target DC T3806 warehouse operations posting
7. Target overnight inbound stocking posting (NYC)
8. Teamsters / Costco national agreement 2025–28
9. UFCW 919 / Stop and Shop MOA (to 2026)
10. Rhode Island rule 260-RICR-30-05-2: Sunday and holiday premium
11. Fisher Phillips: Massachusetts retail premium pay phase-out
12. DOL Fact Sheet #23: overtime pay requirements
13. 29 CFR 778.207: shift differentials in the regular rate
14. California DIR overtime FAQ
15. r/Target overnight paycheck thread (self-reported)
16. r/walmart overnight differential thread (self-reported)

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.