NHS Overtime Rates Explained

"Overtime" is one of those NHS pay terms everyone thinks they understand until they try to work out exactly what a specific extra shift is worth — and the most common source of confusion is assuming it works the same way for part-time and full-time staff. It genuinely doesn't. This guide sets out the real Agenda for Change overtime rates, the separate rules for part-time "additional hours," and how both differ from the unsocial hours enhancement covered elsewhere on this site.

Track your extra hours and time off in lieu, with a countdown to the three-month conversion deadline, in the free NHS Overtime and TOIL Log.

Overtime vs "additional hours": the key distinction

The single most misunderstood part of NHS overtime is that it isn't really about your own personal contracted hours at all — it's about the standard full-time week, set at 37.5 hours under Agenda for Change. Whether an extra hour is paid as enhanced overtime or plain-rate "additional hours" depends on whether that hour takes your total for the week above or below that 37.5-hour threshold, not simply whether it's beyond what you're personally contracted to work.

To see overtime alongside your nights, weekends and bank holidays as one take-home figure, taxed once as a payslip does, use the free NHS Rota Calculator.

Full-time overtime: the actual rates

For staff in Bands 1 to 7 working genuine overtime — hours beyond the standard 37.5-hour full-time week, at their employer's request — the NHS Terms and Conditions Handbook sets a single, harmonised national rate:

Overtime pay is calculated on your normal hourly rate for your band and pay point, plus any long-term Recruitment and Retention Premium you're entitled to — see our guide to RRP if that applies to your post. Short-term RRP, HCAS and other separate enhancements generally aren't folded into the base rate overtime is calculated from.

Part-time staff: additional hours explained

If you work part-time and pick up extra shifts, it's easy to assume you're doing "overtime" the same way a full-time colleague would — but under Agenda for Change, you're on a different system called additional hours until your total hours in that specific week actually reach 37.5:

• • Extra hours you work above your own contracted hours, but still at or below 37.5 in that week, are paid at your normal, plain rate — the same rate as your regular contracted hours, with no time-and-a-half uplift.
• • Only once your total hours actually worked in a given week exceed 37.5 do any further hours in that same week become genuine overtime, paid at the enhanced time-and-a-half (or double time) rate.
• • This is a deliberate equalities principle, not an oversight — it exists so that a part-time employee taking on extra shifts isn't paid a premium rate before reaching the same full-time-equivalent threshold a full-time colleague has to work beyond to earn overtime, which would otherwise pay part-time staff more per hour than full-time staff for broadly comparable additional work below that threshold.
• • Additional hours below the 37.5-hour full-time week are standard hours, so the percentage-based unsocial hours enhancements (nights, Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays) can still apply to them where they fall in a qualifying window. Hours beyond 37.5 are overtime, and unsocial hours payments are not included in overtime pay (Handbook paragraphs 2.9 and 2.15).

Worked example at Band 5

Take a full-time Band 5 nurse on pay point 2, £34,592 a year for 2026/27 — an hourly rate of roughly £18. If their trust asks them to work a genuine 4-hour overtime shift beyond their normal 37.5-hour week:

Now compare that with a part-time Band 5 colleague on the same pay point, contracted for 22.5 hours a week, who's asked to pick up the same 4 extra hours, taking their week to 26.5 hours — still well below the 37.5-hour full-time threshold. Those 4 hours are paid at the same plain £18 hourly rate as their normal contracted hours — a genuine, deliberate difference of £35 for an outwardly identical extra shift, purely because of how many hours each of them had already worked that week.

How this differs from unsocial hours pay

Overtime and unsocial hours enhancements are frequently confused because both can add a significant amount on top of basic pay — but they answer entirely different questions. Overtime asks "is this hour beyond the standard full-time week?" Unsocial hours enhancements ask "what day or time of day does this hour actually fall on?" A hand of contracted daytime weekday hours never attracts unsocial hours pay no matter how many of them you work. The two are not added together: under the Handbook, unsocial hours payments are for work during standard hours (paragraph 2.7), extra time above standard hours is treated as overtime (paragraph 2.9), and unsocial hours payments are not included in any part of the calculation of overtime payments (paragraph 2.15). So an overtime hour worked at 2am on a Sunday is paid at the overtime rate (time and a half, or double time on a general public holiday) on basic pay, not at the overtime rate plus a Sunday enhancement. Check your own trust's policy for how it applies this in practice. See our full NHS Unsocial Hours Payments Explained guide for the exact percentages and how midnight affects which rate applies.

Regular overtime should also be reflected in your pay while on leave, as explained in holiday pay and regular overtime.

Buying a home? Lenders may count regular overtime in full, in part or not at all, depending on the lender, so you can test the difference in the NHS Mortgage Calculator.

Who isn't eligible for overtime

As with the unsocial hours enhancement, overtime under this national mechanism generally applies to Bands 1 through 7. Staff on Band 8a and above are not typically eligible for separate overtime payments — the expectation under Agenda for Change is that any additional hours occasionally required of these more senior roles are already reflected in the overall salary for the band, rather than paid as a distinct line item. Medical and dental staff (doctors and dentists) sit on an entirely separate contract with its own rules on additional sessions and hours, and aren't covered by this Section 3 overtime framework at all.

Why you can rely on the figures on this page

• ✓ The time-and-a-half and double-time overtime rates, and the 37.5-hour full-time threshold, come directly from the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook
• ✓ We've clearly separated genuine overtime from part-time 'additional hours' — a distinction with real payslip consequences that's commonly misunderstood
• ✓ The worked example uses the same 2026/27 Band 5 pay point figures used consistently across this site's other pay guides
• ✓ The overtime and unsocial hours rules are stated from Handbook paragraphs 2.7, 2.9, 2.15 and Section 3, with a reminder to check your own trust's local policy