Night Shift Pay Calculator (Brazil CLT)

Urban, rural and the fictional hour

What counts as "night" changes with the activity. For urban workers, the night period runs from 10pm to 5am, with a 20% premium (CLT art. 73). In the countryside, the period and rate differ: crop farming, 9pm to 5am; livestock, 8pm to 4am; and the premium is 25% (Law 5.889/1973).

The fictional hour is the part that surprises most. In urban work, the law treats each night hour as lasting 52 minutes and 30 seconds, not 60. In practice, someone who works 7 clock hours at night is paid as if it were 8, a built-in gain on top of the 20% premium. This fictional reduction does not apply to rural workers, who keep the 60-minute hour.

• Urban: 10pm–5am, 20% premium (CLT art. 73).
• Rural: crop 9pm–5am, livestock 8pm–4am, 25%.
• Urban fictional hour: 52m30s (7h count as 8).
• The fictional hour does not apply to rural work.

The fictional-hour effect (illustrative figures)

Suppose an urban worker with a regular hour of R$ 10 who works 7 clock hours from 10pm to 5am. With the premium, each hour is worth R$ 12 (R$ 10 + 20%). But, by the fictional hour, those 7 clock hours equal 8 paid hours, so the pay is 8 × R$ 12 = R$ 96, not 7 × R$ 12 = R$ 84.

The R$ 12 difference over the night (repeated each shift) comes purely from the fictional hour, on top of the premium. That is why the tool separates the real hour from the fictional hour: for urban work, the fictional hour forms the base of night pay; for rural work, the 60-minute hour is used with the 25% premium.

After 5am and integration into pay items

There is a detail about working past dawn: under TST Súmula 60, II, if a shift performed entirely within the night period extends beyond 5am, the night premium continues to apply to the extended hours. In other words, the right does not end exactly at 5am when the night shift runs over.

Being habitual, the night premium integrates remuneration and generates reflexos: in the DSR (TST Súmula 60, I), in vacation (CLT art. 142) and the 13th salary (Law 4.090/1962, art. 1, §1), since both are based on remuneration, and in FGTS. And TST Súmula 265 applies: someone transferred from the night shift to the day shift loses the right to the premium, since there is no vested right to keep it.

• Extension past 5am keeps the premium (TST Súm. 60, II).
• DSR reflexo: TST Súmula 60, I.
• Integrates vacation and the 13th when habitual.
• Transfer to day shift removes the premium (TST Súm. 265).