NHS unsocial hours calculator
See what nights, Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays add to your NHS pay, and how much of it you keep after tax, National Insurance and pension.
Your NHS job
Add to your pay
Unsocial hours
Nights, weekends and bank holidays
Deductions and tax
NHS Pension
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London weighting, unsocial hours, on-call and part-time extra hours count towards your pension tier. Overtime for full-time staff does not.
See take-home for every pay period
- Annually
- £26,731.63
- Monthly
- £2,227.64
- 4-weekly
- £2,056.28
- Fortnightly
- £1,028.14
- Weekly
- £514.07
- Daily (5-day week)
- £102.81
Your pay steps in Band 5
Take-home a month at each step, with everything you entered above.
| Step | Salary | Take-home a month |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | £32,073 | £2,227.64 |
| Intermediate | £34,592 | £2,379.56 |
| Top | £39,043 | £2,648.00 |
| Band 6 entry | £39,959 | £2,703.24 |
Buying a home? See how much you could borrow on this pay with the mortgage affordability calculator.
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Unsocial hours rates by band
Under Agenda for Change, hours worked between 8pm and 6am on weekdays, and all day on Saturdays, are paid at one rate. Sundays and public holidays are paid at a higher one. Lower bands get bigger percentages.
| Band | Nights and Saturdays | Sundays and public holidays |
|---|---|---|
| Band 2 | Time plus 44% | Time plus 88% |
| Band 3 | Time plus 37% | Time plus 74% |
| Bands 4 to 9 | Time plus 30% | Time plus 60% |
What it is worth
A Band 5 at entry averaging 8 hours of nights or Saturdays and 4 hours of Sundays a week earns about £342 a month in unsocial hours pay. After tax, NI and pension, take-home goes from £2,040 to £2,228 a month.
Unsocial hours pay is pensionable, so it counts towards your NHS Pension tier and builds more pension. It is also included in your pay when you are on annual leave or off sick.
Ambulance staff
Ambulance staff in England who started after 1 September 2018 are paid under the hourly system above. Annex 5 still applies to ambulance staff in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and to English staff who were employed before that date and stayed on it. It pays a flat percentage of basic pay set by the average unsocial hours they work: 9%, 13%, 17%, 21%, 25%. Choose “Ambulance (Annex 5)” in the calculator if this applies to you.
Common questions
What counts as unsocial hours in the NHS?
Weekday hours between 8pm and 6am, all of Saturday, and all of Sunday and public holidays.
Is unsocial hours pay pensionable?
Yes. It counts as pensionable pay and is used to set your contribution tier.
Do I get unsocial hours pay when I am on holiday?
Yes. Regular unsocial hours are included in your pay during annual leave and sickness absence.