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GS night differential and Sunday pay: what a federal shift adds
If you are paid on the General Schedule and you work nights, Sundays or holidays, three premiums sit on top of your base pay. They are the same for a federal police officer, a prison officer, a hospital worker or a guard at a base gate — the rule follows the hours, not the job title.
Night differential, Sunday and holiday premium
All three come from the Office of Personnel Management, which sets pay rules for the whole General Schedule. Each is a percentage of your hourly base rate, and each only pays for hours you are scheduled to work — not for leave, and not for overtime the premium does not already cover.
| Premium | How much | When it applies, in OPM’s words |
|---|---|---|
| Night pay | 10% | “Night pay is a 10 percent differential paid to an employee for regularly scheduled work performed at night.” “Generally, night work must be performed between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.” |
| Sunday premium | 25% | “Sunday work consists of nonovertime work during an employee’s regularly scheduled basic tour of duty (not to exceed 8 hours) that begins or ends on a Sunday.” On a compressed schedule, all the nonovertime hours of that tour count. |
| Holiday premium | 100% | “Holiday premium pay is equal to an employee’s rate of basic pay.” A scheduled holiday shift is paid twice over. |
They stack. OPM: “Night pay is paid in addition to overtime, Sunday, or holiday premium pay.” A Sunday night shift earns both.
One shift, worked out
A GS-7, step 1, on base pay alone: $43,106 a year, which OPM divides by 2,087 hours to get $20.65 an hour. They work a twelve-hour tour from 6 p.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday.
| Line | Hours | Rate | Adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Night pay | 12 | 10% of $20.65 | $24.78 |
| Sunday premium, standard schedule | 8 | 25% of $20.65 | $41.30 |
| Sunday premium, compressed schedule | 12 | 25% of $20.65 | $61.95 |
Our arithmetic on OPM’s published rules and the 2026 base table, before locality pay. Your agency’s payroll applies the exact rules for your schedule.
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What it is paid on
Every premium is a percentage of your hourly base, so it grows with your grade and step. The 2026 base table put a 1% raise on every rate; locality pay then adds a percentage that depends on where you work.
| Grade, step 1 | A year | An hour | Night pay, one 12-hour tour |
|---|---|---|---|
| GS-5 | $34,799 | $16.67 | $20.00 |
| GS-7 | $43,106 | $20.65 | $24.78 |
| GS-9 | $52,727 | $25.26 | $30.31 |
| GS-11 | $63,795 | $30.57 | $36.68 |
Federal law enforcement officers at grades 3 to 10 are paid from a higher table of their own, and in 2026 some of them from special rates higher again. That is its own page: the LEO pay scale.
Trade and craft workers are paid differently
Mechanics, electricians, custodians and other blue-collar federal staff are on the Federal Wage System, not the General Schedule, and their night rule is shaped differently: it is a shift differential set by when most of your hours fall.
| Shift | Differential |
|---|---|
| 3 p.m. to midnight | 7½% |
| 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. | 10% |
TSA screeners are not on either system — TSA runs its own pay bands. Their rosters are on TSA shift schedules.
Questions
What is GS night differential?
Ten percent of your hourly base rate for regularly scheduled work between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. It is paid on top of overtime, Sunday and holiday premium pay.
How much is Sunday pay for federal employees?
Twenty-five percent of your hourly base rate, for up to eight nonovertime hours of a regularly scheduled tour that begins or ends on a Sunday - or for the whole tour on a compressed schedule. You have to work it: a Sunday on leave does not earn it.
Do I get night pay when I am on leave?
Only in a narrow case. OPM: an employee is entitled to night pay for paid leave only when the total paid leave in the biweekly pay period is less than 8 hours.
Does BlueShifts work out my premium pay?
No. It shows you which of your days are nights, which fall on Sundays and which land on holidays, months ahead, so you can see what is coming. Payroll does the sums.
Where this comes fromOPM fact sheets on night pay for General Schedule employees, Sunday premium pay, premium pay under title 5, and night shift differential for Federal Wage System employees; OPM Salary Table 2026-GS, “Incorporating the 1% General Schedule Increase”. Checked 23 September 2026.
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