New York Spread of Hours Pay: When You’re Owed an Extra Hour

Spread of hours pay is one of the wage-and-hour rules covered in New York employment law, and it is one of the more misunderstood. It is not overtime, and it is not tied to how many hours an employee actually works. It turns on a single fact: how long the workday stretches from beginning to end. This article explains what the spread is, when the extra hour is owed, how much it comes to, who is covered, and how a worker recovers it when an employer leaves it out.

What counts as your spread of hours

The spread of hours is the length of time between the start of the first shift and the end of the last shift in a single day. Under 12 NYCRR § 146-1.6, the spread includes “working time plus time off for meals plus intervals off duty”, every hour from clock-in to final clock-out, whether or not the employee was paid for it.

Because unpaid gaps count, the spread can be far longer than the hours worked. The hospitality wage order gives a concrete example: a worker on duty from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and again from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. has worked six hours but has a 15-hour spread. A shift running 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. is nine and a half hours of work across a 10.5-hour spread.

When the extra hour is owed

Two of New York’s minimum wage orders carry a spread of hours requirement. For most industries, 12 NYCRR § 142-2.4 requires one additional hour of pay for any day on which the spread of hours exceeds 10 hours, on which there is a split shift, or on which both occur. For restaurants and all-year hotels, 12 NYCRR § 146-1.6 requires the extra hour on each day the spread exceeds 10.

The trigger is the 10-hour mark. A workday with a spread of exactly 10 hours does not qualify; the spread has to be more than 10. The number of hours actually worked inside that window does not change the result, a six-hour day and a nine-hour day both qualify when the spread runs past 10 hours.

Overtime is calculated separately and works differently. Spread of hours pay is a flat one-hour premium tied to the length of the day, while overtime is a rate-and-a-half premium tied to working more than 40 hours in a week. An employee can be owed both in the same week. For how the weekly overtime premium is figured, see New York overtime law.

How much spread of hours pay is

The premium is one hour of pay at the “basic minimum hourly wage rate,” not at the employee’s own rate of pay. As of 2026, New York’s minimum wage is $17.00 an hour in New York City and in Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties, and $16.00 an hour in the rest of the state, so a single spread of hours hour equals one of those amounts depending on where the work happens. The New York State Department of Labor publishes the current rates, which are set to rise with the cost of living after 2026. The premium the wage orders require does not change with the worker’s own wage, it is always calculated at the minimum rate under 12 NYCRR § 142-2.4.

Who is covered

Coverage is broadest in hospitality. Under the hospitality wage order, the spread of hours hour is owed to “all employees in restaurants and all-year hotels, regardless of a given employee’s regular rate of pay.” A server earning well above minimum wage is entitled to it just as a minimum-wage worker is.

Outside hospitality, the picture is narrower. The miscellaneous wage order ties the extra hour to the basic minimum hourly wage rate, and the New York State Department of Labor has long read that order to require spread of hours pay only for employees who are paid at or near the minimum wage. Higher-paid employees in non-hospitality jobs are generally not covered. Spread of hours pay is also separate from other New York wage entitlements, such as paid sick leave, which follows its own accrual rules.

How to claim unpaid spread of hours pay

When an employer leaves the extra hour out, the amount is treated as unpaid wages. The New York State Department of Labor and the New York Attorney General’s office both pursue wage-and-hour claims on behalf of workers, and an employee can also bring a private lawsuit. New York’s Labor Law generally allows six years to recover unpaid wages, a longer window than the federal wage law provides.

1. Gather your pay and schedule records

   Collect pay stubs, time records, and any schedule showing daily start and end times. The claim turns on the spread of each day, so records showing the first clock-in and last clock-out matter more than total hours worked.

2. Identify the qualifying days

   Mark each day the interval from start to finish ran more than 10 hours. Split shifts and long unpaid breaks are what usually stretch the spread past the threshold, so those days deserve a close look.

3. Raise it with the employer or file a claim

   Unpaid spread of hours pay can be raised with the employer directly or filed as a wage claim with the New York State Department of Labor’s Division of Labor Standards. The Attorney General’s office also accepts complaints about unpaid wages.