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Nurse pay calculator
Pick 3×12, 4×12 or 5×8, enter your base rate and the night, weekend and charge differentials your unit pays, and see what a week is worth: base, differentials, effective rate, overtime on the differential-included rate, weekly and biweekly gross, and an estimated take-home.
Overtime after 40 hours on the differential-included rate, as the FLSA requires. Take-home is a flat-percentage estimate, not a paystub. Typical RN night and weekend differentials, with sources, are on the RN shift differential page.
How it works — three 12s, then a fourth
The calculator opens on a night nurse at $42.00/hr working three 12-hour shifts, 36 hours, with a $5.00 night differential on 24 of those hours and a $3.00 weekend differential on 12. Base pay is 36 × $42.00 = $1,512.00. The differentials are counted on their own hours, not the whole week: 24 × $5.00 = $120.00 for nights plus 12 × $3.00 = $36.00 for the weekend, $156.00 together. Weekly gross is $1,668.00; over 36 hours that is an effective rate of $46.33/hr. No overtime, because 36 is under 40.
Take-home applies a flat 22% to gross: $1,668.00 × 0.78 = $1,301.04 a week, or $2,602.08 on a biweekly check with two identical weeks. The percentage is a placeholder for federal withholding plus FICA; state tax, health premiums and a 403(b) contribution all come out on top, so dial it to whatever your last paystub shows.
Now pick up a fourth night. Hours go to 48, night hours to 36: base $2,016.00, differentials $216.00, effective rate $46.50/hr. The 8 hours over 40 earn a premium on that blended rate: 8 × $46.50 × 0.5 = $186.00, for a week of $2,418.00. A payroll that computes the premium on the bare $42.00 base pays $168.00 instead, $18.00 short. That is the error worth checking, because 29 CFR 778.207 requires differentials in the overtime rate.
Charge and preceptor pay enter the same way: an add-on on some hours that raises the blended rate for all of them. Typical differential ranges for RNs, with sources, are on the RN shift differential page; the step-by-step paystub walkthrough is in how to calculate a nurse paycheck. If your unit self-schedules on a fixed rotation, the three-12s schedule page shows which workweek alignments create a 48-hour week in the first place.
FAQ
How much do night shift nurses make extra?
Hospital night differentials commonly run $2 to $8 an hour, or 10% to 20% of base, with a separate weekend differential of a few dollars an hour stacked on top. On a $42.00 base, a $5.00 night differential over 24 night hours a week adds $120.00 a week, about $6,240.00 a year on a full-time 3×12 schedule before any overtime. Sourced ranges by role are on our RN shift differential page.
Do three 12s get overtime?
Not under federal law: 3×12 is 36 hours, four short of the 40-hour weekly threshold, so it is the fourth 12 that triggers overtime, 8 hours of it. Two states change this. California pays daily overtime after 8 hours unless the hospital runs a valid alternative workweek schedule, and Colorado after 12. Hospitals on the 8/80 system instead pay overtime after 8 hours in a day or 80 in 14 days.
Is charge nurse pay included in overtime?
Yes. A charge or preceptor add-on is pay for hours worked, so 29 CFR 778.108 and 778.207 require it in the regular rate that overtime is computed on, exactly like a shift differential. If you were charge for 12 of 48 hours at $2 an hour, that $24 is averaged across all 48 hours and lifts the overtime rate by $0.75 an hour. This calculator stacks charge pay into the blended rate the same way.
How is nurse take-home estimated here?
The net figure applies one flat withholding percentage to weekly gross, 22% by default: roughly federal income tax at a typical nurse's bracket plus 7.65% FICA, before state tax, health premiums and retirement contributions. It is an estimate, not a paystub. Set the percentage to the ratio of net to gross on your last real check to calibrate it, or switch withholding off to see gross only.
What's the 8/80 rule?
Section 7(j) of the FLSA lets hospitals and residential care facilities pay overtime after 8 hours in a day or 80 hours in a 14-day period, whichever is more, instead of after 40 in a week, but only with an agreement made before the work. Under 8/80 every 12-hour shift carries 4 daily overtime hours, so 3×12 pays differently than under the 40-hour rule modelled here. Check your offer letter or contract for which system your hospital uses.
SHIFTCHECK FOR IPHONE
Your unit's differentials, priced on every shift you paint.
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