Sent Home Early Pay Calculator
Sent home early from a shift? Estimate the reporting-time pay 8 states and DC require, at your own rate or the state minimum wage, and when it applies.
Sent Home Early Pay Calculator
Your State
These 8 states and DC set a minimum for a day you report and get sent home. Elsewhere you are generally paid only for the hours you worked.
With two or three shifts, enter the day's total scheduled hours as the shift length below.
Your Pay
Your rate is below the minimum wage entered, so you may also be owed minimum-wage back pay. This estimate still uses your rate. Total what is missing with the back pay calculator.
Your Shift
The shift you were scheduled for. New Jersey, New Hampshire and Connecticut guarantees don't depend on it.
Use decimals: 1 hour 30 minutes is 1.5, and 15 minutes is 0.25.
California only. A second report with under 2 hours of work pays 2 hours, figured separately from the first.
One workday has at most 24 hours, so a value above 24 is counted as 24.
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Gross pay before taxes. Estimates only, not legal or tax advice. The calculator applies each rule's formula, but it can't tell whether your employer, job or day is covered or whether an exception applies.
How the Rule Works Here
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Worked hours over 8 today may be daily overtime, which this tool doesn't price. Check them with the overtime calculator.
ClockWage44
Hours Tracker: Time + Pay
Keep a record of every cut shift
Log the hours you worked and note who sent you home, then add the reporting-time pay as taxable other income on a paycheck estimate to see it after tax.
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Three numbers decide what a cut shift pays
Every reporting-time rule in this calculator comes down to three numbers. Start with the guaranteed hours. Some states use a fixed block: 1 hour in New Jersey, 2 in New Hampshire, 3 in Massachusetts and 4 for Connecticut retail. California and Oregon (for workers under 18) use a share of your shift, and New York, DC and Rhode Island cap their block at a shorter regular shift.
Next comes whether the hours you worked count toward that guarantee. In all nine jurisdictions here they do, so the guarantee is a total for the report, not a bonus on top of the hours you put in. Last is the rate for the unworked hours, and that's where the states split furthest apart.
Take one day: $22 an hour, scheduled for 8 hours, sent home after 1.5.
- California: half the shift is 4 hours, and 1.5 is less than half, so you get 2.5 more hours at $22: $55.00.
- DC: 4 hours are guaranteed and 2.5 of them went unworked, priced at the $18.40 DC minimum wage: $46.00.
- New York (most industries): 4 hours at $17.00 sets a $68.00 floor for the day. You earned $33.00, so the call-in pay is $35.00, before any weekly offset.
- New Jersey: the guarantee is 1 hour and you worked 1.5, so nothing extra is owed: $0.00.
Same shift, four answers from $0.00 to $55.00. That spread is why the calculator asks where you work before anything else. For a state-by-state table and how show-up pay is treated for overtime, see our guide to reporting time pay.
Your rate or the minimum wage: how states price the gap
Once you know the guaranteed hours, the rule has to put a price on the ones you didn't work. The states do it in three ways.
- Your regular rate. California, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Oregon (under 18) and Connecticut retail pay every unworked guaranteed hour at your own rate. The higher your wage, the bigger the reporting-time pay.
- Worked hours at your rate, the rest at minimum wage. Massachusetts, DC and New York hospitality split the day. A raise increases your pay for hours worked, but the reporting-time pay stays the same.
- A dollar floor for the day. New York's Part 142 and Connecticut restaurants set a minimum amount for the day (the guaranteed hours times the minimum wage), and everything you earned counts toward it. The more you earn, the sooner you clear it: at $17.00 an hour in New York City it takes 4 hours of work, and at $22 a little over 3 hours.
That's why the minimum wage field only appears for those last two kinds of rule and switches to each one's 2026 default when you change the state: $17.00 in New York City, Long Island and Westchester ($16.00 in the rest of New York), $15.00 in Massachusetts, $18.40 in DC from July 1, 2026, and $16.94 for Connecticut restaurants. Each of these is set for the whole state (by region in New York), so the usual reasons to change it are working in upstate New York or a newer rate taking effect. Our list of minimum wage by state for 2026 has the rest.
Reporting-time pay counts as taxable wages. Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%) come out of it like any other pay, along with income tax withholding, so every figure above is before tax. It should show up on your stub, and the pay stub checker helps you find the line.
Short shifts, second reports and caps
California's guarantee is half of the scheduled shift, but never less than 2 hours or more than 4. A 3-hour shift guarantees 2 hours, a 6-hour shift 3 hours, and any shift of 8 hours or more 4 hours. The rule only kicks in when you get less than half of the shift, so on an 8-hour shift, working 4 hours or more means nothing extra. Work 5 hours of a 12-hour shift and the rule is triggered, but your 5 hours already beat the 4-hour cap, so again nothing is added. The state labor commissioner also doesn't apply the rule to a regularly scheduled shift under 2 hours.
California is the only one of these jurisdictions with a second-report rule. If you are required to report a second time in the same workday and get less than 2 hours of work, you are paid for 2 hours. That second report is figured separately from the first. Work a full 8-hour shift, get called back, and get sent home after 1 hour, and the second report adds 1 hour. Get sent home after 1 hour of an 8-hour shift, come back and work 8, and the first report still pays its 3 extra hours. Tick the second-report box and the calculator adds both reports together.
New York and DC cap their guarantee at your regularly scheduled shift when it is shorter than 4 hours, so a regular 3-hour shift guarantees 3. Rhode Island's 3 hours shrink to a shorter shift only when you agreed to that shift. New York's hospitality order works in tiers: 3 hours for one shift, 6 for two and 8 for three, each capped at a shorter regular schedule. New Hampshire (2 hours), New Jersey (1 hour) and Connecticut retail (4 hours) have no cap at all, so a 1-hour shift in New Hampshire still pays 2 hours.
Who the rules leave out
Every one of these rules has carve-outs, and the calculator shows a number without deciding whether one applies to you. The main ones by jurisdiction:
- California: executive, administrative and professional employees, state and local government employees, and paid standby employees called in at another time are outside the rule. So are days when work stops for threats or a civil-authority order, a utility or sewer failure, or an act of God.
- Massachusetts: charitable organizations are exempt.
- New Hampshire: county and municipal employees, plus ski and snowboard instructors at ski resorts, are excluded.
- Connecticut: only mercantile and restaurant work is covered, since the other industry orders were repealed in 2014.
- Oregon: only workers under 18 are covered. Adults have no general show-up rule.
- Rhode Island: full-time students working for their own college get the agreed shift length instead of the 3-hour rule.
Notice matters too. New Hampshire excuses an employer that made a good-faith effort to tell you not to come in, Connecticut restaurants owe nothing if you were told the day before, Oregon excuses an employer that followed a posted notice policy, and Massachusetts owes nothing if the shift was cancelled before you reported. New Jersey's rule doesn't apply if your employer offered the minimum hours you had agreed on before work began. Leaving by choice doesn't count in California or New York hospitality, though in California being sent home for performance still does.
If you think a premium was owed and never paid, a record of the day is your best evidence: the posted schedule, when you arrived, who sent you home and when. ClockWage44 logs the hours you worked with a note for the day, and you can add reporting-time pay as taxable other income on a paycheck estimate. To total unpaid premiums across several pay periods, use the back pay calculator. In California, reporting time pay still unpaid when a job ends can also support waiting time penalties.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about sent home early pay calculator
What is New York's four-hour call-in pay rule?
Under 12 NYCRR 142-2.3, the order for most New York industries, an employee who reports for work at the employer's request or with its permission must be paid for at least 4 hours, or for the regularly scheduled shift if it is shorter, at the basic minimum wage. That is $17.00 an hour in New York City, Long Island and Westchester and $16.00 in the rest of the state in 2026. Hours you worked count toward it: at $22 an hour, sent home after 1 hour of an 8-hour shift in New York City, the floor is $68.00, you earned $22.00, and the call-in pay is $46.00. The state labor department has also said the floor can be met across the whole week, so a worker paid well above minimum wage is often owed nothing extra.
I work in a New York restaurant. Is my call-in pay different?
Yes. Restaurant and hotel workers are covered by the Hospitality Industry Wage Order (12 NYCRR 146-1.5) instead. It guarantees 3 hours for one shift, 6 hours for two shifts and 8 hours for three, or your regularly scheduled shift if it is shorter. Time you worked is paid at your own rate (less any tip credit) and the rest at the basic minimum wage with no tip credit, at any pay level. If your hours on that weekday change from week to week, you have no regularly scheduled shift, so the full 3, 6 or 8 hours applies.
What is the 3-hour rule in Massachusetts?
454 CMR 27.04(1) says an employee who is scheduled for 3 or more hours and reports on time must be paid for at least 3 hours. In the state's reading, hours you worked are paid at your rate and the unworked part at no less than the $15.00 minimum wage. Sent home after 1 hour at $22 an hour, you get $22.00 for the hour worked plus $30.00 for the other 2 hours. Charitable organizations are exempt, a shift scheduled in good faith for under 3 hours pays only the hours worked, and nothing is owed if the shift was cancelled before you reported.
Is my show-up pay figured at my own rate or at minimum wage?
It depends on the state, and there are three patterns. California, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Oregon (workers under 18) and Connecticut retail pay the guaranteed hours at your own rate: at $22 an hour, a California worker scheduled for 8 hours and sent home after 1 gets 3 more hours, or $66.00. Massachusetts, DC and New York hospitality pay worked hours at your rate and the unworked balance at minimum wage, so the same day in DC adds 3 hours at $18.40, or $55.20. New York's Part 142 and Connecticut restaurants set a minimum dollar amount for the day instead: in New York City that is 4 hours at $17.00, or $68.00, so you get the $46.00 gap above the $22.00 you earned.
My shift was only 2 or 3 hours. Is there still a minimum?
Not in every state. California's labor commissioner doesn't apply the rule to a regularly scheduled shift under 2 hours, and Massachusetts only covers a schedule of 3 hours or more. New York and DC cap their guarantee at a regularly scheduled shift that is shorter than 4 hours, and Rhode Island pays a shift under 3 hours its own length only when you agreed to the short shift. New Hampshire (2 hours), New Jersey (1 hour) and Connecticut retail (4 hours, unless the labor department approved a written agreement for shorter regular shifts) don't cap the guarantee at your schedule, so a 1-hour shift in New Hampshire still pays 2 hours.
Does Oregon have show-up pay?
Only for workers under 18. OAR 839-021-0087 pays a minor who gets less than half of the agreed hours for half of those hours or 1 hour, whichever is more, at the regular rate. It isn't owed when Oregon's predictive scheduling law already pays for the change, when the employer followed a posted notice policy in good faith, or when snow, flooding, fire, a power outage or an unforeseeable equipment failure stopped the work. Adults have no general show-up rule in Oregon, but at large retail, hospitality and food service employers they may get predictability pay for a cut shift instead. Our guide to predictability pay explains it.
Does it count if my manager calls me in while I'm on call?
In California it can. In Ward v. Tilly's, a California appeals court held that reporting for work doesn't have to be physical, so being required to call in before an on-call shift and then told not to come in can trigger reporting time pay. Paid standby employees who are called to work at another time are excluded by section 5(D) of the wage orders. In Massachusetts, on-call workers who weren't scheduled for at least 3 hours aren't covered. For pay while you wait on standby, try the on-call pay calculator.
Which Connecticut workers get a daily minimum?
Two groups. Mercantile workers (retail and wholesale selling, plus incidental stock, delivery, maintenance and office work) who report get at least 4 hours at their regular rate. Restaurant and hotel restaurant workers get at least 2 hours' earnings at the minimum wage, $16.94 an hour in 2026, unless they were told the day before not to come in, and only if they were able and willing to work those 2 hours. The beauty shop, laundry and cleaning and dyeing orders were repealed in 2014, so other Connecticut jobs have no daily guarantee.