Work Out Whether a Shift Actually Pays After Childcare — Free
The arithmetic that decides this is rarely done, because it feels depressing to do it. Take the shift pay, subtract the childcare hours it creates and the travel it adds, and you get one number per shift. Sometimes it is 40 in your favour. Sometimes it is 6. Either way it is better to know than to suspect.
The proof surface
Free path: the card computes locally in the browser with no key and no account. Where an AI step helps, any free chat assistant works — Google AI Studio's free tier and Groq's free tier were both no-card and rate-limited when this page was reviewed on 2026-09-13 (limits change; check before you rely on them).
Why the flat version breaks
A wage figure and a childcare invoice live in different places, at different times of the month. Nothing puts them next to each other, so the comparison happens in the head at 21:00 on a Sunday. Putting both on one receipt makes the number small, specific and hard to argue with.
How to run the receipt in four passes
Count the hours of cover you would not otherwise buy, and multiply by the rate you actually pay — including a minimum booking block if the nursery or childminder charges one. That number is the real cost of the shift.
A return bus fare and parking are real; a season ticket you buy anyway is not. Adding the wrong travel either flatters or damns the shift, and the point of the card is to be argued with successfully.
Hourly rate before tax, including any enhancement for unsocial hours. Premium rates are exactly what makes awkward shifts worth taking, and leaving them out understates the case for working them.
The card works per shift. Run it for a Saturday late, an evening clinic and a weekend double, then take the figures to whoever sets the rota — a specific number per shift is a much shorter conversation than a general complaint about hours.
SAMPLE DATA, NOT A VERIFIED CLAIM: Saturday late · 8 hours at 14.20 · childcare 62.00 · travel 11.40 · net 40.20 per shift. Replace these values with your own source before you rely on anything.
What breaks first
Comparing a monthly salary with a monthly invoice
Monthly comparisons hide which shifts are the problem. Something is only wrong with some of the rota, and per-shift arithmetic finds them.
Forgetting the minimum booking block
Many providers charge a session minimum regardless of the hours you use. An eight-hour shift inside a ten-hour block costs ten hours, and that changes the answer on short evening shifts.
Treating the figure as the whole decision
The card prices money. It cannot price whether the shift is worth doing for the qualifications, the goodwill or the routine — those are yours to weigh, and the missing line on the receipt says so.
What you pay otherwise
| The usual route | What it leaves out | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Unpriced extra hours | Shifts taken that quietly cost more than they pay | a real per-shift loss |
| Emergency childcare | Cover found at short notice when a rota changes | short-notice rates |
| A rota argument without numbers | A conversation about resentment instead of arithmetic | the shift, either way |
| This page + the free shift pay receipt | Computed in your tab, result on screen before you type anything | $0 |
Try the free shift pay receipt
A Saturday late is already priced with childcare and travel against eight hours at 14.20. Raise the childcare to 96.00 and the net figure moves in the receipt.
Open the free shift pay receipt →Keep the work if you will use it again
Both sides, the net figure per shift and the missing-lines note, with no account.
Both sides and the net figure per shift stay free. The one-time tier adds the printable receipt for the rota conversation plus the saved shift patterns behind it.
Boundary: This compares the numbers you enter; it is not financial or benefits advice and it does not calculate tax. Tax, benefit entitlement and childcare support schemes can change the answer — check them with the relevant authority or a qualified adviser.