Do you get paid extra for working on Leap Day?
It’s a leap year once again which means workers are doing a 366-day year. So what does it mean for Americans’ pay?
If you’re an hourly worker, the answer is straightforward, says Leticia Saucedo, the Martin Luther King Jr professor of law at the University of California, Davis: you’re certainly entitled to pay. And hours worked on the 29th aren’t considered overtime – “it’s just another workday”, says Reuel Schiller, Roger J Traynor chair and professor of law at UC Law San Francisco.
As for salaried US workers, the answer is perhaps less satisfying. Under US employment law, salaried workers are often “paid essentially by the job, not by your productivity, not by any hour”, Schiller says. So you’re still getting paid – but you won’t see a leap-year bump.
In the UK, the situation is broadly similar. There is no law governing the handling of 29 February, the employment lawyer Yvonne Gallagher tells the employment law website People Management. But “annual salary is deemed to cover the working days in the year and is usually paid at onetwelfth per month, regardless of the length of the month. The extra day in February in a leap year does not alter this analysis.”
Alan Duncan, director of the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre in Australia, agrees. When you sign a contract accepting a salary, it’s generally about yearly pay rather than hourly or daily, he tells 7news.com.au.
Of course, pay structures are at different companies, and the specifics of your situation may vary. But for many of us, unfortunately, this Thursday is just another day on the job.