Resources · Overtime

Overtime equalization: keeping extra hours fair when everyone wants them

By Antonimar Mello, BSN, RN, a working perioperative nurse on Long Island and the founder of OnCallRank. Published November 9, 2026.

On a lot of units, extra hours are wanted money. People compete to pick up as much as they can, some choose not to take any, and the ones who do take it are glad of it. When everyone wants the hours, fairness gets hard, and overtime equalization is the contract name for keeping each person's share even.

How do you share overtime fairly? Two ways

Two methods show up in union contracts, and both are fair. One counts hours and gives the next shift to whoever has the fewest. The other counts no hours and gives the next shift to whoever has waited longest since their last one.

The first way: fewest hours goes first. At Ohio University, the contract with AFSCME Local 1699, Article 11, Equalization of Overtime, awards each shift to the employee who has the fewest aggregate hours worked and refused on the roster.

The second way: longest wait goes first. Take a shift and you go to the back. A corrections contract in Broome County, New York with AFSCME Local 2012 (2015 to 2019), Article 12.1, runs this way: interested employees are noted on a voluntary overtime list, and when more than one volunteers, the shift goes to the person with the furthest date back of last overtime. A tie goes to seniority, and every volunteer is used before anyone is forced.

Some contracts set the goal and leave the method open: Kaiser's Northwest nurse contract with OFNHP says overtime is distributed equitably and that seniority is not a determining factor.

What happens when someone says no

When a shift is offered one person at a time, a no has to count as if the hours were worked. Otherwise the person who always says no keeps getting asked first.

Niagara County, New York and CSEA wrote this into their 2025 to 2027 contract. Section 15(d) lets an employee refuse overtime as long as the refusal does not work a hardship on the department, but the hours refused are charged as time worked, for the purpose of overtime equalization.

When everyone is asked at once and only the people who want it request it, staying quiet is not a refusal and nothing gets charged.

What makes either way work: a list everyone can see and check

Either method only holds when everyone can see the same record: a posted list, updated each time a shift is handed out, that anyone can check instead of taking it on faith.

Ohio University's contract requires the overtime rosters to be posted where all employees can reach them, and updated after each overtime assignment.

Niagara County's department keeps quarterly records of overtime worked and makes them available to employees upon reasonable request.

Where OnCallRank fits

OnCallRank runs the longest-wait way. The Overtime tab is separate from call and keeps its own rotation, with seniority setting only the starting order. A manager posts an open overtime shift, everyone is notified, the staff who want it request it in the app, and the manager awards it to the requester who is next up in the overtime rotation, who then moves to the back. Staff who do not want the hours simply do not request, and nothing is charged against them.

When nobody requests a shift, the manager can force it from a separate forced rotation, least senior first, and has to type a reason before it goes through; the forced person moves to the back of that forced rotation.

Everyone reads the same record. Staff see their own role's overtime rotation and forced rotation, each person's Awarded and Forced counts, and every awarded shift for their role in History. The reason typed on a forced shift is shown only to managers and to the person who was forced. Every award and every force lands in a permanent history with the date and the name attached.

How to try it on one unit

The Overtime tab is live today. There is no patient data anywhere in the product, and signing in is an email and a password, nothing more, so there is nothing for hospital IT to review before a unit tries it.

If your unit wants to see it on its own roster, the pilot is free for three weeks on one unit, no card. Early units take a Founding Partner rate that starts at $99 for a unit of up to 30, held as the product grows. Start your free trial, or book a 15-minute call.