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Comment by bmj | Hacker News Reader

Are you suggesting this to be the norm across industries? Like, the folks working the registers at Target on Friday night? What about Monday night? Or Wednesday night? How does that differ?

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It should be the norm across industries. I don't know if this is done or not in retail, but it is common enough in manufacturing (even in non-union shops). It event has a name; it's called a shift differential, and it can be quite lucrative for the employee. Especially if they can work a normal 40-hour week and pick up a night shift on Saturday or Sunday. That one additional shift, with the shift differential and overtime could be the equivalent of two and a half or three normal days.

This apparently exists on the Federal level in the U.S.:

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-admi...

Though it sounds like on the Federal level, the employee must work a majority of their hours within a particular time period to qualify:

Night shift differential means the differential paid for work performed when the majority of a prevailing rate employee's regularly scheduled nonovertime hours fall between 3 p.m. and 8 a.m. It is computed as a percentage of the employee's rate of basic pay.

Well, it's not entirely irrational that a society might decide that having to work in a way contrary to the natural diurnal cycle deserves higher pay. (Yes, I am suggesting that perhaps our society's obsession with having things like retail stores available 24/7 might not be healthy.)

That's reasonable, but we're talking about more than just 24/7 retail here. Even in the days before the 24 hour grocery store, restaurants and bars were open on Friday and Saturday nights (and most evenings, for that matter), and I don't believe those folks received higher pay.

Don't get me wrong, I think the U.S. 24/7 retail economy is bonkers, but I'm not sure it's reasonable to just bless 9-5 as the official time of economic activity. In the 1990s, I ran a climbing gym, and typically worked 3pm-11pm (or some variation of that) Monday through Friday. I kinda liked that schedule, as it allowed me to be more productive with "life" stuff because I could accomplish things before I went to work.

Just because something has always worked one way doesn't mean it always will continue to work that way.

If a business is having trouble staffing during certain time periods then it's a pretty clear indicator that they might need to offer more to entice people to work those hours. It seems like a pretty clear example of the free market in action.

It doesn't differ and they should get payed extra. There is a cost to working late which somebody is going to pay no matter what.

Just so we are on the same page...when you say "working late" do you mean "working more than 8 hours on a given day" or "simply working outside of the 9am-5pm timeframe?"

I'm talking crazy inconvenient shifts. That can mean different things depending on the location and job but pretty much Dracula hours and double/triple shifts fall into this.

It doesn't differ. And it is the norm in most Western countries outside the US.

Friday nights in excess of a full-time work schedule, yes.

So this is just for hourly employees, then? Because in that case, I assume they'd be getting overtime regardless of the day of the week.

Non-exempt salaried as well.

No one said that was the case.

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