Shift Pay Differential is additional compensation over an employee’s basic annual salary which may be authorized by the Director of Classification and Compensation subject to approval by the Director of the Budget. The Pay Differential may be prescribed for those employees on a night shift, four or more hours of which fall between 6 PM and 6 AM. The authorization is for a particular position and may be within a specific geographical area.
Shift Pay Differential is a separate payment from Inconvenience Pay.
The additional compensation may be designated as a percentage of the basic salary or a fixed dollar amount. The differential is not a part of the employee’s basic annual salary and does not affect other provisions of the law concerning salary determination.
The payment of a differential is terminated for an employee when he or she ceases to be employed in the work shift or position for which such pay differential was authorized. A Shift Pay Differential may be changed or terminated at any time by the Director of Classification and Compensation with the Budget Director’s consent.
An employee in a position for which a differential has been authorized must be regularly assigned to a night shift to be eligible for differential pay. Some guidelines for eligibility follow:
- An employee who works the normal day shift four days and the night shift one day as a regularly continuing assignment is eligible for shift pay on a pro-rated basis. This employee would receive one-fifth of the total differential amount each biweekly period.
- An employee who occasionally works a night shift is not entitled to differential pay since this is not a regularly continuing assignment.
- An employee regularly assigned to the day shift who is temporarily reassigned to a night shift must remain on the night shift for ten working days in a two-week period to be eligible for differential pay.
- A part-time employee is eligible for Shift Pay Differential.
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