Holiday Pay

System · November 2005

First time posting, however, I've been browser of the forum.

Scenario: Non-Exempt EE works four 10 hour days (M,T,W,R) during the Thanksgiving holiday which we, by policy, provide Thanksgiving day and the day after off with pay. These EE work 10 hours per day, turn in 10 hours of vacation or sick for each day they are off.

So, the EE works M,T,W for a total of 30 hours (three 10 hour days) and the ER provides them 10 hour holiday for Thanksgiving day (40 hours for the week) and then less than 10 hours for the day after, say 8 hours (48 hours for the week).

Question: Can the ER choose to pay them a different number of hours for a holiday (10 vs 8)because the holiday happens to be on a regularly scheduled day off? Is this a ER policy decision or are there laws governing how this practice should be?

Any response and guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and have a great day!

Kevin B.

POPEYE · November 2005

Holidays are a company provided benefit and when and or how you pay would be dictated by company policy. We work 24-7 and if an EE is scheduled to work a holiday we're closed they get 12 hrs. holiday pay. If not scheduled, they get 8 hrs.

To cover yourself and the company, you should have these policies/procedures in writing so you can be consistent.

BTW, I visit your fair city at least once if not twice a year for the races. Always have a great time.

Down_the_Middle · November 2005

The employer clearly determines the number of hours to be paid for Holidays and presumably you'll have a policy or long standing practice to guide you. While many employer choose to replace the lost work hours w/the same number of Holiday pay, you can certainly provide 8 hrs Holiday pay vs 10. Whatever you choose to do, should of course, be done uniformly across the organization.

Dutch2 · November 2005

Basically the same here. We pay the ee the number of hours they would have worked had we been open that day. This can be any number of hours. If they are only scheduled four hours on Thursdays, then we will pay them four hours of holiday pay for this past Thursday. However, we do not pay holiday pay if the ee was not scheduled to work that day as their compensation for the week was not lessened by the holiday closure.

HRCalico · November 2005

We pay holidays at 8 hours regardless of schedule. (And we have been crazy all over the place with schedules - used to be some departments would work 50 hour weeks, some 45, some 55. Now, in theory, production is 4-10s plus OT while most of the office is on 5-9s.)

Something that I've heard of but not personally seen is having a bank of X hours for holiday pay, then allowing people to use them as they wish for holidays - i.e. they could "declare" 8 or 10 hours. Of course, they must be responsible enough to "declare" it in whatever fashion so as to not drive your payroll people nuts having to track people down.

Good luck, and welcome to the forum!

PS - you could also try searching the forum for other opinions - I'd probably look under Benefits, Wage and Hour, and HR Documents. Let me know if you'd like help doing that.

E Wart · December 2005

I won't go into it is up to you since this has been covered.
However, if you have employees who work an alternate schedule, you should probably look at the beginning of each year and what this schedule works and what the holiday would be if they are paid their regular hours for days office closed for holiday. Add these totals for the year. They should have the same number of holiday hours as an 8-5 person. We have a couple of people on an alternate schedule. They end up having some "floating holiday" time since they don't "use up" the total number of holiday hours when you look at their schedule. (I know what I am trying to say, but difficult to explain.)

E Wart

POPEYE · December 2005

If you're trying to say what I think you're trying to say.....

You say your going to have 9 paid holidays. If you have crews that work 8, and 12 hours, the 8 hour crew is getting screwed on actual hours paid. So, 9 x 8 = 72 hours so you would want to make adjustments with the 12 hr. EEs so they also would have 72 hours of actual paid time or vice versa.

We are working through that right now and may do something like giving floating days so that the actual paid time is consistent.

HRCalico · December 2005

I was trying to say something like that, too! Sort of, anyway. :>)

System · December 2005

Thanks to all for your time and information. This has confirmed a lot and increased the confidence level a ton regarding how holiday pay may be handled. Thanks again and have a great weekend!

KB

LarryC · December 2005

Hi Kevin. In a previous job I used to travel to Johnson City frequently. I love the area, although the people there had a hard time understanding my Minnesota accent. As you probably already know, you're free to set your own policy in this regard. My God, even here in the Land of 10,000 NASCAR fans and 0 tracks, we are actually free to set our own holiday policy. Glory be, I feel so free today!!!! The powers that be are busy arguing over whether to call the lighted tree at the capitol a "Christmas tree" or a "Holiday tree". I kid you not!

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Pay

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