Premium Pay

Premium pay is additional pay authorized by Title 5, United States Code, for overtime, night, holiday, Sunday work, and other types of work.

• Generally, an employee is entitled to receive a night pay differential for regularly scheduled work (i.e., scheduled in advance of the workweek) between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Night pay is paid for both non-overtime and overtime work. Premium pay for night work equals 10 percent of the employee’s rate of basic pay. An employee is entitled to a night pay differential for a period of paid leave only when the total amount of that leave in a pay period, including both night and day hours, is less than 8 hours.
• A part-time or full-time employee who performs regularly scheduled nonovertime work during a tour of duty, any part of which occurs on Sunday, generally is entitled to premium pay equal to 25 percent of the employee’s rate of basic pay for the entire tour of duty. Sunday pay is not paid when Sunday work is not actually performed or during periods of paid leave or excused absence. Therefore, during periods of annual, sick, or military leave, an employee is not entitled to Sunday pay.
• An employee who performs any work during his or her regularly scheduled basic (nonovertime) tour of duty on a holiday receives holiday premium pay in addition to his or her regular pay. An employee assigned to work on a holiday during his or her regularly scheduled tour of duty is entitled to a minimum of 2 hours of holiday premium pay. An employee receives his or her regular hourly rate of basic pay for each hour worked, plus “holiday premium pay” equal to the regular hourly rate of basic pay for each nonovertime hour worked. The total amount of pay received equals twice the employee’s regular hourly rate of basic pay for each hour worked.
• Hazardous Duty Pay (HDP) for a GS employee and Environmental Differential Pay (EDP) for a prevailing rate (wage) employee is additional payment for exposure to hazards, physical hardships, or working conditions of an unusually severe nature. For example, an employee may receive hazardous duty pay or environmental differential pay for exposure to hazardous agents, such as explosive or incendiary materials, virulent biologicals, and asbestos, or working in rough and remote terrain or unsafe structures. An Agency is responsible for determining whether HDP or EDP is warranted. HDP or EDP may be paid only to an employee who is assigned hazardous duties involving physical hardship for which a differential is authorized. Hazard pay differentials for a GS employee are listed in 5 CFR part 550, subpart I, appendix A. (See 5 CFR 550.901-550.907.) Environmental differentials for a prevailing rate employee are listed in 5 CFR part 532, subpart E, appendix A. (See 5 CFR 532.511.)
• Overtime pay for an employee who is not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (i.e., FLSA-exempt employees) generally is earned for hours of work officially ordered or approved in excess of 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week.
• Compensatory Time Off (Comp Time) earned in lieu of overtime pay for irregular or occasional overtime work (defined as work that is not part of an employee’s regularly scheduled administrative workweek).