Shift work and supplements

Eight profession files in this repo describe shift work, and pay.md admits that its table understates every one of them, because supplements sit outside base pay. This quantifies what is missing.

The short version: for a rotating shift worker in the public sector, supplements are commonly 10–20% on top of base pay — and much of it arrives tax-free, so the effect on take-home is larger still.

Two different things, often confused

Zeitzuschläge (§8 Abs. 1 TVöD) Schichtzulagen (§8 Abs. 5–6)
Basis Per hour worked at an unsocial time Per month, for working in a shift system
Depends on When you actually worked The roster you are on
Paid Every unsocial hour Whether or not this month was unsocial

You can receive both at once. They are separate entitlements.

Zeitzuschläge — the hourly supplements

Verified against §8 TVöD, 2026-09:

Hours worked Supplement
Nachtarbeit 20%
Sonntagsarbeit 25%
Samstag, 13:00–21:00 20%
Feiertag, with time off in lieu 35%
Feiertag, without time off in lieu 135%
24.12. and 31.12., from 06:00 35%
Überstunden 30% up to E 9b / S 13 / P 11; 15% from E 9c upward

Two rules that are not obvious and that people get wrong:

  1. Supplements are calculated from the Stufe 3 hourly rate of your Entgeltgruppe — not from your own pay. Someone in Stufe 1 is therefore paid supplements at a higher rate than their own hourly wage; someone in Stufe 6 at a lower one. It is a flat rate per grade, not a percentage of your personal salary.
  2. Where several of the unsocial-time supplements coincide, only the highest applies — they do not stack. A Sunday night pays 25%, not 45%.

Schichtzulagen — the monthly allowances

Allowance Permanent Occasional
Wechselschichtzulage €105/month (€155 under TVöD-K, i.e. hospitals) €0.63/h (TVöD-K €0.93/h)
Schichtzulage €40/month €0.24/h

Wechselschicht means genuinely round-the-clock rotation including regular night shifts. Schicht means a shift plan with varying start times but without the full night rotation — hence the much smaller allowance.

Zusatzurlaub comes on top: additional annual leave days for permanent Wechselschicht and for night work, scaled by how many qualifying months you work.

The part that matters most: much of it is tax-free

§3b EStG exempts supplements for night, Sunday and holiday work from income tax and, up to a base rate ceiling, from social contributions — within these limits:

Work Tax-free up to
Night work 25%
Night work 00:00–04:00 (shift begun before midnight) 40%
Sunday 50%
Public holidays 125%
24.12. from 14:00, 25. and 26.12., 1 May 150%

Compare with the TVöD rates above. The 20% night supplement sits entirely inside the 25% tax-free allowance. The 25% Sunday supplement sits well inside 50%. The 135% holiday supplement is largely covered by 125%.

The practical consequence, and the reason this document exists: for a public-sector shift worker, supplements are very largely net. A euro of night supplement is worth substantially more than a euro of base salary, and no gross-pay comparison — including the one in pay.md — reflects that.

A worked example

A nurse on P 7 Stufe 3, €3,701/month under TVöD-K (38.5 h/week ≈ 167 monthly hours) — an hourly base of about €22.

Component Amount
Base €3,701
Permanent Wechselschichtzulage (TVöD-K) +€155
~60 night hours at 20% of ≈€22 +€265
Two Sunday shifts, ~16 h at 25% +€88
Total ≈ €4,209

That is about 14% above the base figure the pay table shows — and the €353 of Zeitzuschläge in it is largely tax-free, so the gap in net terms is wider again. Add a public holiday or overtime and it grows further.

Bereitschaftsdienst and Rufbereitschaft

Distinct from shift supplements, and easy to conflate:

  • Bereitschaftsdienst — you are at the workplace, available to work. Counted and paid at a reduced rate, with rules varying by sector. For hospital doctors this is commonly 20–30% on top of base pay and a frequent source of disputes.
  • Rufbereitschaft — on call from home. A smaller standby payment, plus full pay for hours actually worked when called out.

Outside the public sector

Sector How supplements work
IG Metall / IG BCE (industrial trades) Shift and night supplements under regional agreements, generally comparable or better, plus the 13th month
Beamte (police, fire) Erschwerniszulagen — a separate system with its own rates, not the TVöD figures above
Road haulage Spesen — tax-free per-diems for time away, a different mechanism entirely and a large share of take-home
Hospitality Supplements are patchy; tips are the real uplift, tax-free without limit under §3 Nr. 51 EStG
Non-tariff private employers Whatever the contract says. Often nothing beyond the statutory minimum for night work under §6 ArbZG

Who this affects in this repo

Rotating or unsocial hours are central to nursing, MT/MTA, paramedics, doctors, firefighters, police, warehouse logistics, industrial maintenance, machining, security, baking and hospitality.

For all of them, the pay table is a floor, not an estimate.

Sources

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