PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

Nurses must get extra pay on top of their basic salary for night, weekend, holiday, overtime, and on‑call work. Work done between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. pays an extra 10% of the hourly basic rate if at least four hours fall in that night period; if fewer than four night hours are worked, the 10% applies only to the hours actually worked at night. Work from midnight Friday to midnight Sunday pays an extra 25% per hour. Work on a federal holiday pays the nurse their normal hourly pay plus an extra equal amount (double pay) for each hour, and any required holiday work counts as at least two hours. Overtime applies when a nurse works more than 40 hours in an administrative week or more than eight consecutive hours; overtime is paid at 1.5 times the hourly basic rate. Overtime must be at least 15 minutes in a day to be paid. Unplanned or callback overtime counts as at least two hours. Compensatory time instead of pay is allowed only if the nurse asks for it in writing. Travel time usually does not count as hours of service unless it meets certain conditions, like occurring during the nurse’s work period, involving work while traveling, being incident to such work, being under arduous conditions, or resulting from an uncontrollable event. To figure extra pay amounts, a nurse’s hourly basic rate is the annual basic pay divided by 2,080. If more than one extra pay rule applies for the same hours, each extra is calculated separately from that hourly basic rate, except a nurse cannot get overtime pay on top of the holiday pay described above. On‑call pay outside regular hours or on a holiday is 10% of the overtime hourly rate. The extra pay under these rules is not treated as “basic pay” for certain federal benefit rules (Subchapter VI of chapter 55; section 5595; and chapters 81, 83, 84, and 87 of title 5). The Secretary may raise these extra pay rates to recruit or keep nurses. Those increases can be limited to a particular facility to match non‑federal local pay (but not exceed it, using a representative sample) or made more broadly if justified by a review.

Title 38, §7453

Veterans' Benefits, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)In addition to the rate of basic pay provided for nurses, a full-time nurse or part-time nurse shall receive additional pay as provided by this section.

(b)A nurse performing service, any part of which is within the period commencing at 6 postmeridian and ending at 6 antemeridian, shall receive additional pay for each hour of such service at a rate equal to 10 percent of the nurse’s hourly rate of basic pay if at least four hours of such service fall between 6 postmeridian and 6 antemeridian. When less than four hours of such service fall between 6 postmeridian and 6 antemeridian, the nurse shall be paid the differential for each hour of service performed between those hours.

(c)A nurse performing service, any part of which is within the period commencing at midnight Friday and ending at midnight Sunday, shall receive additional pay for each hour of such service at a rate equal to 25 percent of such nurse’s hourly rate of basic pay.

(d)A nurse performing service on a holiday designated by Federal statute or Executive order shall receive for each hour of such service the nurse’s hourly rate of basic pay, plus additional pay at a rate equal to such hourly rate of basic pay, for that holiday service, including overtime service. Any service required to be performed by a nurse on such a designated holiday shall be deemed to be a minimum of two hours in duration.

(e)(1)A nurse performing officially ordered or approved hours of service in excess of 40 hours in an administrative workweek, or in excess of eight consecutive hours, shall receive overtime pay for each hour of such additional service. The overtime rates shall be one and one-half times such nurse’s hourly rate of basic pay.

(2)For the purposes of this subsection, overtime must be of at least 15 minutes duration in a day to be creditable for overtime pay.

(3)Compensatory time off in lieu of pay for service performed under the provisions of this subsection shall not be permitted, except as voluntarily requested in writing by the nurse in question.

(4)Any excess service performed under this subsection on a day when service was not scheduled for such nurse, or for which such nurse is required to return to the nurse’s place of employment, shall be deemed to be a minimum of two hours in duration.

(5)For the purposes of this subsection, the period of a nurse’s officially ordered or approved travel away from such nurse’s duty station may not be considered to be hours of service unless—

(A)such travel occurs during such nurse’s period of service; or

(B)such travel—

(i)involves the performance of services while traveling,

(ii)is incident to travel that involves the performance of services while traveling,

(iii)is carried out under arduous conditions as determined by the Secretary, or

(iv)results from an event which could not be scheduled or controlled administratively.

(f)For the purpose of computing the additional pay provided by subsection (b), (c), (d), or (e), a nurse’s hourly rate of basic pay shall be derived by dividing such nurse’s annual rate of basic pay by 2,080.

(g)When a nurse is entitled to two or more forms of additional pay under subsection (b), (c), (d), or (e) for the same period of service, the amounts of such additional pay shall be computed separately on the basis of such nurse’s hourly rate of basic pay, except that no overtime pay as provided in subsection (e) shall be payable for overtime service performed on a holiday designated by Federal statute or Executive order in addition to pay received under subsection (d) for such service.

(h)A nurse who is officially scheduled to be on call outside such nurse’s regular hours or on a holiday designated by Federal statute or Executive order shall be paid for each hour of such on-call duty, except for such time as such nurse may be called back to work, at a rate equal to 10 percent of the hourly rate for excess service as provided in subsection (e).

(i)Any additional pay paid pursuant to this section shall not be considered as basic pay for the purposes of the following provisions of title 5 (and any other provision of law relating to benefits based on basic pay):

(1)Subchapter VI of chapter 55.

(2)section 5595.

(3)Chapters 81, 83, 84, and 87.

(j)(1)Notwithstanding any other provision of law and subject to paragraph (2), the Secretary may increase the rates of additional pay authorized under subsections (b) through (h) if the Secretary determines that it is necessary to do so in order to obtain or retain the services of nurses.

(2)An increase under paragraph (1) in rates of additional pay—

(A)may be made at any specific Department health-care facility in order to provide nurses, or any category of nurses, at such facility additional pay in an amount competitive with, but not exceeding, the amount of the same type of pay that is paid to the same category of nurses at non-Federal health-care facilities in the same geographic area as such Department health-care facility (based upon a reasonably representative sampling of such non-Federal facilities); and

(B)may be made on a nationwide, local, or other geographic basis if the Secretary finds that such an increase is justified on the basis of a review of the need for such increase (based upon a reasonably representative sampling of non-Federal health-care facilities in the geographic area involved).

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Prior Provisions

Provisions similar to those in this section were contained in section 4107(e) of this title prior to the repeal of that section as part of the complete revision of chapter 73 of this title by Pub. L. 102–40.

Amendments

2010—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 111–163, § 601(k)(1)(A), substituted “a full-time nurse or part-time nurse” for “a nurse”. Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 111–163, § 601(k)(1)(B), struck out “on a tour of duty” after “performing service” and substituted “hour of such service” for “hour of service on such tour”, “at least four hours of such service” for “at least four hours of such tour”, and “less than four hours of such service” for “less than four hours of such tour”. Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 111–163, § 601(k)(1)(C), struck out “on a tour of duty” after “performing service” and substituted “such service” for “service on such tour”. Subsec. (e)(1). Pub. L. 111–163, § 601(k)(1)(D)(i), substituted “eight consecutive hours” for “eight hours in a day”. Subsec. (e)(5)(A). Pub. L. 111–163, § 601(k)(1)(D)(ii), substituted “period of service” for “tour of duty”. 1994—Subsecs. (f), (g). Pub. L. 103–446, § 1201(e)(24), substituted “subsection (b), (c), (d), or (e)” for “subsections (b), (c), (d), or (e)”. Subsec. (i)(3). Pub. L. 103–446, § 1201(g)(6), struck out “of title 5” before period at end.

§7453 Nurses: Additional Pay