Last updated: Mar 30, 2026, 4:27 PM
According to New York state law, on each day on which the spread of hours exceeds 10, an employee shall receive one additional hour of pay at the basic minimum hourly rate. There are a couple of different ways this may apply, described below. Toast Payroll has an optional feature to assist with compliance with the New York spread of hours law. Please contact payrollsupport@toasttab.com if you're interested in using this feature.
What will happen:
Spread of hours will add automatically when the last minute worked in the day (the later of last punch out or 11:59 p.m.) is more than 10 hours after the first punch in of the same day. This is the vast majority of cases where the spread of hours is required.
What to watch out for:
If a standard workday employee works an overnight shift greater than 10 hours, the spread of hours will be added. If hours worked in each workday are less than 10 hours, the spread of hours may not be required and could be removed if the employee does not work other shifts on the day(s) in question. This is not a common scenario.
What will happen:
Spread of hours will add automatically when a single overnight shift is greater than 10 hours.
What to watch out for:
If a non-standard workday employee works multiple shifts in a non-standard workday that are individually less than 10 hours but together result in a spread of more than 10 hours, the spread of hours will not be added automatically. It may be necessary to add manually in these rare cases.
Note: If you have employees working overnight shifts consistently, it may be in your interest to ensure their workday is explicitly defined to align with logic that assumes them to be a non-standard workday employee.
This content is for informational purposes and is not intended as legal, tax, HR, or any other professional advice. Please contact an attorney or other professional for advice.