NHS unsocial hours pay
Section 2 of the handbook sets what you are paid on top of plain time for evenings, nights, weekends and public holidays. The rates differ by band, and the figure they are calculated on is not the one most people expect.
Updated for 2026/27Pay circular effective 1 April 2026 - 31 March 2027
The rates
Section 2 of the Terms and Conditions handbook pays an enhancement on top of plain time for work at defined unsocial times. The enhancement is a percentage, and it falls as the band rises.
| Pay band | All Saturday, and weekdays after 20:00 and before 06:00 | All Sunday and public holidays |
|---|---|---|
| Band 1 | Time plus 47% | Time plus 94% |
| Band 2 | Time plus 41% | Time plus 83% |
| Band 3 | Time plus 35% | Time plus 69% |
| Bands 4–9 | Time plus 30% | Time plus 60% |
Figures above from: NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook, Section 2 (England), Table 2. Effective from 2026-04-01. This site is not affiliated with the NHS, NHS Employers or the NHS Business Services Authority.
Note that the Sunday and public-holiday column is not simply double the other one for every band. For bands 2 and 3 it is not, and the figures are published as they appear above rather than calculated from the weekday rate.
Which hours count
- All day Saturday, midnight to midnight, and weekdays after 20:00 and before 06:00 — the first column.
- All day Sunday and public holidays, midnight to midnight — the second column.
- You receive one rate per hour worked, never two.
There is also a whole-shift rule. Where a continuous weekday evening or night shift runs partly outside the 20:00–06:00 window, the enhancement applies to the entire shift if more than half of it falls inside. It is a majority test over the shift, not an hour-by-hour split — so a shift that is mostly inside the window is enhanced throughout, and one that is mostly outside is enhanced only for the hours that are inside. Public holidays are outside this rule; they take the second column directly.
The part almost every calculator gets wrong
Your high cost area supplement is excluded from the base. Section 2.8 says the enhancement is worked out using basic salary, and that it does not include short-term recruitment and retention premiums, high cost area supplements, or any other payment. Long-term recruitment and retention premiums are included.
This matters because the figure a London member of staff sees published against their band is the HCAS-inclusive one. Worked through, for a Band 5 at the entry step in inner London working 200 hours in the Saturday and night window and 60 hours on Sundays and public holidays across a year:
| Base used | Annual figure | Hourly | Enhancement earned |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic salary (correct) | £32,073 | £16.40 | £1,574.74 |
| HCAS-inclusive (wrong) | £38,488 | £19.68 | £1,889.71 |
The gap is £314.97 a year on this rota. The enhancement percentages themselves are unchanged — 30% and 60% — only the figure they are applied to differs.
Figures above from: NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook, Section 2 (England), §§2.8, 2.11, 2.12. Effective from 2026-04-01. This site is not affiliated with the NHS, NHS Employers or the NHS Business Services Authority.
Sick pay, pension and parental pay
Unsocial hours payments are pensionable, and they count towards contractual maternity, adoption and shared parental pay. They are not included in the calculation of overtime, on-call, or any other payment in the handbook.
During sickness absence there is a protection for staff employed as at 30 June 2018 whose basic salary is at or below a threshold set at that time. That threshold has not been uprated since, and it now sits below every point on the current England pay scale — so on current pay it no longer reaches anyone. This is worth knowing precisely because it looks like a live protection and is not.