Locum nurse unsocial hours: what the rate card actually means

An agency rate card shows a headline weekday rate plus "unsocial hours" multipliers. The numbers look clean. The actual calculation for a shift covering multiple bands almost never is.

The standard unsocial-hours structure

A typical UK agency nursing rate card for a Band 5 nurse in 2026 reads something like:

• Weekday 07:00–18:59: £25 per hour
• Weekday evening 19:00–23:59: £27.50 per hour (1.1x)
• Weekday night 00:00–06:59: £30 per hour (1.2x)
• Saturday all day: £28 per hour (1.12x)
• Saturday night 00:00–06:59: £32 per hour
• Sunday all day: £32 per hour (1.28x)
• Sunday night 00:00–06:59: £35 per hour
• Bank holiday: £40 per hour (1.6x)

That is eight bands, and a single shift can touch three or four of them.

A Friday 20:00 to Saturday 08:00 long shift

Worked example:

• Friday 20:00–23:59: 4 hours at £27.50 = £110
• Saturday 00:00–06:59: 7 hours at £32 = £224 (Saturday night rate, not weekday night)
• Saturday 07:00–08:00: 1 hour at £28 = £28
• Total: £362 for 12 hours, effective rate £30.17

If you had booked this as a "night shift at £30 per hour" without reading the full rate card, you would be out of pocket by £2 per hour for part of it and underpaid compared to the Saturday hours for the rest.

A shift that starts on a bank holiday evening

First, the trap that costs people money over Christmas 2026: 26 December 2026 is a Saturday, so it is not itself a bank holiday in England and Wales. The Boxing Day bank holiday moves to the substitute day, Monday 28 December 2026. A shift worked on 26 December is paid at Saturday rates, and a nurse who queries a payslip expecting the bank-holiday multiplier on that date will lose the argument.

Example one: Christmas Day 2026 (a Friday, and a bank holiday) 20:00 to Saturday 26 December 08:00:

• 25 Dec 20:00–23:59: 4 hours at £40 (bank holiday) = £160
• 26 Dec 00:00–06:59: 7 hours at £32 (Saturday night rate, because 26 December 2026 is a Saturday and not a bank holiday) = £224
• 26 Dec 07:00–08:00: 1 hour at £28 (Saturday day rate) = £28
• Total: £412 for 12 hours, effective rate £34.33

The moment you cross midnight out of Christmas Day, you drop off the bank holiday multiplier entirely.

Example two: the substitute bank holiday, Monday 28 December 2026 20:00 to Tuesday 29 December 08:00:

• 28 Dec 20:00–23:59: 4 hours at £40 (bank holiday) = £160
• 29 Dec 00:00–06:59: 7 hours at £30 (weekday night; 29 December is an ordinary Tuesday) = £210
• 29 Dec 07:00–08:00: 1 hour at £25 (weekday day rate) = £25
• Total: £395 for 12 hours, effective rate £32.92

Two shifts in the same week, both starting at 20:00 on a bank holiday, £17 apart. Check the calendar for the year you are booking, not the date in your head.

What goes wrong in practice

• Agencies round to whole hours when you clocked partial hours. Check the payslip.
• Some agencies use the shift START hour to classify the whole shift, not the actual hours worked. A shift starting 06:00 on a weekday that runs to 18:00 should be mostly weekday day rate, not night or evening. Confirm before accepting.
• Minimum shift rates are sometimes higher than the per-hour calculation suggests. If you accept a 3-hour booking, the minimum might pay 4 hours.
• Breaks are usually unpaid. A 12.5-hour shift with a 30-minute unpaid break pays 12 hours.
• Time-and-a-half vs double-time: bank holiday rates vary. £40 per hour at time-and-a-half off a £25 base is not the same as £40 flat.

Umbrella and agency fees on top

All these figures are before umbrella fees, employer NI, and apprenticeship levy where you are engaged through an umbrella. See our locum nurse pay worked example for the net calculation.

Practical advice

1. Ask for the full rate card in writing before accepting an unfamiliar agency. A PDF beats a verbal quote.
2. For long or mixed shifts, calculate your own expected pay before the shift starts. Do not rely on the payslip.
3. Keep a log of what you were told, what you worked, and what you were paid. Disputes about unsocial-hours calculations are common and usually resolved in the nurse's favour when the log is clear.
4. If an agency refuses to disclose the rate card, move on. Agencies with nothing to hide share the full card.

Sessional logs every shift with start and end times, day of week, and rate. Export to CSV and the cross-check takes a minute per month. See our nurse page.