New York Spread-of-Hours Pay: 2026 Rates and Pay Stub Checks

Spread-of-hours pay is an additional wage payment for a long workday span under an applicable New York wage order. For covered employees in restaurants and all-year hotels, a workday spanning more than ten hours triggers one additional hour of pay at the basic minimum hourly rate. The span includes meal periods and off-duty gaps, so eight worked hours can still produce a qualifying day. See New York’s Hospitality Industry Wage Order, section 146-1.6.

This guide focuses on that restaurant and all-year hotel rule, using 2026 rates checked October 9, 2026. It explains how to calculate the span, check the extra earnings and keep the payment separate from overtime and actual worked hours. Other industries and exempt employees require their own coverage review.

What does spread-of-hours pay mean?

The spread measures elapsed time from the beginning to the end of the employee’s workday. Hours worked measure compensable work time. Spread pay is the additional payment due when the relevant rule’s conditions are met. Those are three different measurements.

For instance, a day beginning at 7:00 a.m. and ending at 6:00 p.m. spans eleven hours. If a three-hour interval in the middle is genuinely off duty, the employee can have eight worked hours within that eleven-hour span. A timecard showing “8.00” therefore cannot establish the spread by itself.

The extra payment is not an instruction to pay every off-duty hour as work. It is also not another hour actually worked. Keep the full schedule and its compensable portions visible when reviewing the earnings.

Which New York employees does this guide cover?

The hospitality provision discussed here applies to covered restaurant and all-year hotel employees, including covered employees earning more than minimum wage. New York’s Hospitality Wage Order FAQ explains coverage and exemptions. A genuinely exempt executive, administrative or professional employee is not automatically covered because the business is a restaurant.

“All-year hotel” is a defined category. A hotel that qualifies as a resort hotel is not interchangeable with an all-year hotel for this provision. Ask which classification applies if your workplace is a seasonal or resort operation.

Do not extend this calculation automatically to every New York occupation. The state uses separate wage orders for different industries. A home care, retail, building service or farm job needs the appropriate rules rather than this restaurant example. The New York Department of Labor’s wage-order directory is a starting point for identifying the applicable order.

For a worker outside New York, check that location’s requirements and any employment agreement. A payroll label used by one employer does not establish the same entitlement elsewhere.

How do you measure the workday span?

Start with the first work time and the final work time within the applicable workday, keeping meal periods and off-duty intervals between them in the elapsed span. Record worked time separately.

Fictional schedule: a covered New York restaurant employee works 7:00–11:00 a.m., is completely off duty 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m., and works 2:00–6:00 p.m. Assume eight compensable worked hours and no other work or time-record adjustments.

• First work block: four hours.
• Off-duty interval: three hours.
• Second work block: four hours.
• Worked hours: 4 + 4 = 8.
• Workday span: 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. = 11 hours.

Does exactly ten hours qualify?

Section 146-1.6 uses a threshold greater than ten hours. A workday from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. spans exactly ten hours and does not trigger this provision solely because it reaches ten. Keep minutes accurate: ten hours and thirty minutes is 10.50 hours, not 10.30. See our decimal-hours guide.

What if the workday crosses midnight?

Use actual dates and the employer’s properly established workday. Do not reset elapsed time automatically at midnight or subtract clock values without their dates. The state’s hospitality FAQ explains that a workday can follow the business’s regular operation, but cannot be manipulated to evade the law. Request the boundary and the complete time record when an overnight shift is involved.

What if I worked during the unpaid interval?

Recheck worked hours as well as the spread. A meal deduction does not prove that the employee was completely relieved of duties. The U.S. Department of Labor’s hours-worked guidance distinguishes duty-free meal time from meals with duties and generally treats short rest breaks as compensable. Our unpaid lunch-break guide helps organize the records.

How much is the extra payment in 2026?

For the covered hospitality spread described here, the additional payment uses one hour at the applicable basic minimum hourly rate. It is not multiplied by the number of hours beyond ten. A higher regular hourly wage does not change that statutory one-hour amount.

These 2026 basic rates are listed on New York State’s minimum-wage page. Identify the employee’s work location and the applicable rate for the dates concerned. Do not use an old year’s rate or the employer’s headquarters address as a substitute for that review.

For a covered tipped worker, do not substitute a lower tipped cash wage for the basic rate used for this spread payment. Keep ordinary tip-credit calculations separate. The hospitality order also says meal and lodging credits cannot offset the additional hour. These statements concern this particular extra payment, not every wage calculation in every industry.

How do you calculate daily and weekly spread pay?

A daily restaurant-pay example

Assume our fictional schedule belongs to a covered, nonexempt, non-tipped restaurant employee working in New York City in 2026. The agreed hourly wage is $20. There are eight worked hours, the eleven-hour span qualifies, and no other earnings or overtime are due in this simplified daily calculation.

The calculation does not become nine worked hours at $20. That would produce $180 and confuse both the rate and the hours. The correct components under these assumptions are $160 for the worked hours and $17 for the extra payment.

A weekly check with three qualifying days

Extend the same assumptions to five days, with eight compensable worked hours each day. Assume the following spans, no other earnings and no applicable overtime for the forty-hour workweek.

Worked-hour earnings are 40 × $20 = $800. The three qualifying days produce 3 × $17 = $51. Combined gross is $851 before deductions. Do not add the daily spreads together to create a weekly overtime total, or treat the three spread-payment quantities as three additional worked hours.

Is spread-of-hours pay the same as overtime?

No. The covered hospitality spread payment uses the daily span. Ordinary federal overtime for covered, nonexempt employees uses worked hours above forty in the employer’s workweek and the applicable regular rate. The DOL overtime fact sheet explains the weekly rule and prohibits averaging multiple weeks together. See our biweekly overtime check.

A qualifying spread payment does not replace overtime owed for actual work. The hospitality order identifies the extra spread payment as payment for time not worked and says it need not be included in the overtime regular rate. Keep the classification of this statutory payment separate from other bonuses or scheduling premiums, which may require different treatment.

Our fictional week has forty worked hours and $51 spread pay. The extra payment does not turn it into forty-three worked hours. If the time record instead reveals additional work, revisit overtime using that actual work and the applicable rules. The straight-time pay guide explains how ordinary earnings and overtime premiums can appear on separate lines.

How should you read the pay stub entry?

Payroll may label the entry “spread pay,” “spread-of-hours premium,” “SOH,” or a company-specific code. Ask what the quantity means: one can represent a qualifying day’s payment calculation rather than another worked hour. The code itself is not a coverage determination.

A separate, clearly labeled earnings entry makes the payment easier to verify, but do not assume a missing label proves nonpayment. Request the calculation and identify where the amount is included in gross wages. New York’s wage-statement guidance requires specified wage details and, upon an employee’s request, a written explanation of how wages were computed.

Reconcile gross before comparing the bank deposit. The daily $177 and weekly $851 above are earnings amounts, not net-pay forecasts. Federal employment taxes generally apply to employee wages; withholding depends on applicable treatment and the employee’s information. See the IRS employment-tax overview. Other payroll deductions can also affect the deposit.

What should you ask payroll if spread pay appears missing?

1. Confirm coverage. Ask which wage order, employee classification and restaurant or hotel category apply.
2. Collect daily times. Preserve first and last work times, meal periods, off-duty gaps and any later time-record correction.
3. Calculate each span. Use actual dates and the workday boundary, including overnight work where relevant.
4. Check the regional rate. Match the work location and dates with the basic minimum rate applicable to the extra payment.
5. Count qualifying days. Compare your count with the statement’s quantity and gross earnings, then review overtime independently.
6. Request the wage calculation in writing. Ask where any spread payment appears, and request a corrected record and payment reconciliation if an error is confirmed.

A practical request is: “For [date], my first work time was [time] and my final work time was [time], with [off-duty interval] between them. Please confirm my wage-order coverage, the workday span, the applicable spread payment and where it is included in my wage statement.”

Keep the original statement and payroll’s explanation. Our pay-stub correction checklist helps track the response. If the matter remains unresolved, review the New York DOL wage-claim information, including its eligibility criteria, or obtain advice about your specific classification and records.

Frequently asked questions about spread-of-hours pay

Does a split shift automatically qualify under this hospitality rule?

No. Section 146-1.6 tests whether the workday’s span exceeds ten hours. A gap between shifts can increase that span, but a split schedule within ten hours does not automatically satisfy this provision. Other wage-order or call-in-pay requirements must be checked separately.

Do I receive two extra hours if the span is twelve hours?

Under the covered hospitality provision, the payment is one additional hour at the basic minimum rate for the qualifying day. It is not one hour for every hour beyond ten.

Can a higher hourly wage absorb the payment in this example?

The restaurant and all-year hotel provision applies regardless of the covered employee’s regular pay rate. The fictional $20 employee therefore still receives the $17 statutory payment for a qualifying NYC day in 2026. Do not carry that conclusion into a different wage order without checking its rules.

Can the pay stub alone establish whether spread pay is due?

Usually it cannot show the whole time calculation. An eight-hour earnings line does not reveal first and last work times, off-duty gaps or coverage. Compare the statement with daily records and payroll’s explanation.

This guide explains a specific New York hospitality rule and fictional payroll checks. Confirm the applicable wage order, employee coverage, workday and rates for your actual records.