The simple version

If you are on the clock when the changeover happens, the length of your shift is whatever the wall clock did, not what the schedule printed.

Federal law counts hours actually worked. The ninth hour on the longer night is work, so it is paid.

It is paid at your normal rate. Nothing in federal law adds a premium for working through a changeover or for working overnight at all.

The numbers

• The daylight saving period ends at 2 o'clock antemeridian on the first Sunday of November of each year, under 15 U.S.C. 260a(a). In 2026 the first Sunday of November is November 1.
• The same provision starts the period at 2 o'clock antemeridian on the second Sunday of March, so the shift that is 9 hours in the autumn is 7 hours in the spring.
• A shift running 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. is 8 hours on an ordinary night, 9 hours on the night the clocks go back, and 7 hours on the night they go forward.
• Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the statutory definition of the word employ includes to suffer or permit to work, so time worked is counted whether or not it was scheduled.
• The Department of Labor says the Act does not require extra pay for night work. Extra pay for a night shift is a matter of agreement between the employer and the employee or the employee's representative.
• Overtime under the Act is time and one-half the employee's regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. That is the only route by which the extra hour is worth more than the normal rate.
• A state law, a union contract, or a company policy can require more than federal law does. None of them can require less.
• Sources read October 26, 2026. Department of Labor Fact Sheet 22 is marked revised July 2008.

Why the schedule is not what gets paid

The law counts work, and what matters is whether the employer let it happen. That is what the statutory wording about suffering or permitting work is doing.

A schedule is a plan. It is evidence of what both sides expected, and it is not a cap on what has to be paid once more time has been worked than the plan allowed for.

Which is why the changeover is boring as a legal matter and still a common pay statement error. Somebody has to notice that the shift ran long and enter its real length rather than its scheduled one.

The actual math on a shift that runs long

Take someone paid $22 an hour who has already worked 36 hours this week, then works the overnight shift that runs 9 hours instead of 8. The week lands at 45 hours.

Forty hours at $22 is $880. Five hours at time and one-half, which is $33, is $165. The week is $1,045.

Had the shift been the scheduled 8 hours, the week would be 44 hours: $880 plus four hours at $33, or $1,012. The extra hour is worth $33 rather than $22 because it sits above 40. The arithmetic is ours.

What this means

If you work overnight through a changeover, the thing to check on the pay statement is the hours figure, not the rate. The error, when there is one, is almost always a shift entered at its scheduled length.

Whether the hour is worth your normal rate or half again as much depends entirely on where your week already stood. The same hour is worth different amounts to two people on the same shift.

The transferable habit is to separate what the law requires from what an employer has agreed to. Those are two different documents, and only one of them is the same everywhere.

What this is NOT

This article explains how an overnight shift spanning a daylight saving changeover is counted and paid under federal wage and hour law, using 15 U.S.C. 260a, Department of Labor Fact Sheet 22, and the Department's page on night work as the worked example, all read on October 26, 2026. It is not legal advice and it is not a determination about anyone's own pay, job, or employer. We do not give personalized advice, and anyone with a specific dispute should go to the Department's Wage and Hour Division or to a lawyer rather than to this page. It does not cover state wage and hour law, which can and does require more than federal law in many states, and it does not cover union contracts or company policies, none of which we have read. It says nothing about employees who are exempt from overtime, a category this article does not address, and nothing about how any particular employer's timekeeping system handles the changeover. The hourly rate, the 36 hours, and the resulting weekly totals in the math section are an illustration of ours, not anyone's real pay. Fact Sheet 22 is marked revised July 2008 and we have not checked for later guidance beyond the Department pages cited. This is not a political endorsement or criticism of anyone.

Sources

• 15 U.S.C. 260a, Advancement of time or changeover dates, 2024 edition of the United States Code on govinfo. The start and end of the daylight saving period and the 2 o'clock changeover hour. Read October 26, 2026.
• U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet 22, Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, revised July 2008. The statutory definition of employ and the counting of hours worked. Read October 26, 2026.
• U.S. Department of Labor, Night Work and Shift Work. That the Act does not require extra pay for night work, that a night premium is a matter of agreement, and the overtime standard of time and one-half over 40 hours. Read October 26, 2026.