So, the company I work for is going to be closed on Friday after Thanksgiving, but it is not an official paid holiday, they’ve just decided not be open. But, they’re not paying us for that day. As a salary employee, I have the option of taking the day unpaid, using a paid-time-off day, or working extra Mon-Wed to make up the missed day.
Is this legal? It seems to me that since they’re decided to be closed and we have no choice, it should be a hit on us to make up for it, especially as I’m on salary. Any advice is appreciated.
Don’t see what would be illegal about not paying you for what amounts to a non work day, “salaried” or not.
(The company I currently work for has regular week-long shutdowns as a cost cutting measure - salaried regular employees generally have PTO to draw from, “contractors” like me can collect unemployment for the week).
I don’t know that it’s illegal, but it’s a pretty shitty policy for employee morale. I work at a very large insurance company, and we all get paid for a holiday on Thursday AND Friday. If you’re working for a new company without an established policy to deal with this, though, I guess that could explain it.
Depends on your contract. Nothing illegal about closing for a day or closing for a month. But if they’ve promised to pay up you a certain sum per month, for example, they may owe that.
We have one satellite office that gets closed during the last week of the year. Two people are salaried and five people are waged. They are reminded all year long to reserve PTO for that week, or it will be unpaid. I don’t have a cite as to the legality, but our Board of Directors is pretty careful about policy, and usually errs on the side of caution/generosity with regards to time off and pay issues. They do get plenty of time, IMO, the rest of the year, so reserving one week isn’t really a hardship (four weeks total for the year).
If salaried people are supposed to get paid whether they are working or not, then why do they get vacation days?
My company has the day after Thanksgiving as a paid holiday, but is also shutting down the entire week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. They did throw in one extra paid holiday (New Year’s Eve) but we are expected to use paid time off or go unpaid for three days. Most people are actually pretty pumped about it. As far as I know, salaried people have to use time off, too, but I am not salaried, so I’m not absolutely sure.
One of my coworkers is a temp worker, and she was pretty bummed about having to go unpaid for that whole week (since she won’t be working 24 hours in the holiday week like she will this week.) I don’t think she’s considered filing for unemployment, but I think it’s a good idea. At least it will be something.
Most of the companies I have worked for have offered both the Thursday and Friday as holidays, and I am grateful, but I have never really understood it. Maybe it’ just because many people will simply not be coming in on Friday anyway so what’s the point of being open?
If the company decided to be open for business on Friday, but gave everyone the option to take a vacation day (or unpaid day off), how many people would show up? Would you?
I think this is the situation for many school employees. When my wife started working pretty much every vacation day she earned had to go towards the mandatory vacation days during winter and spring break. Now that she has been there a few years, she actually gets enough time to take off another day or two.
I did when I worked for the feds. Not because I am weird, but because my in-laws would be staying with us for Thanksgiving
Wow that’s a crazy way to do business. They could save themselves the hassle by just reducing the hourly wage by 0.4% which for a $25/hr worker means about ten cents.
I don’t understand what’s so strange about this. “You get X days holiday. One day must be taken on thanksgiving. Another must be taken the day after thanksgiving.” European legislation and custom is generally a lot more generous about holiday than US, but even there, I think the employer can dictate when you take your holiday if they really want (think of teachers who are strongly, strongly, discouraged from taking vacation during term.)
It’s probably a problem that you get very very few vacation days and losing one to a long thanksgiving weekend seems unfair, but then they should give you more vacation?
The difference is in Europe employers can say you can’t take vacation at a certain time, but I’m not entirely sure they can tell you when you have to take it.
And I’m glad that here paid vacation isn’t a “benefit”. 25 days per year here is a legal requirement.
If you are a true salaried employee you get paid whether you work 6 or 690 hours this month. You get paid the same amount.
If you are a true salaried employee that gets XX salary per month and they say they will reduce your pay by xx/30 for each ‘unpaid’ day you don’t show up. Then yes, it’s illegal
btw: day after thanksgiving is not a holiday, but unless you’re in retail, nobody works, nobody gets paid. It’s a freebie
They can’t tell you when you have to take vacation. But they can tell you when you can’t. So it sorta works out the same. Welcome to working in the free world.
I’m salaried, and the clinic where I work (in Chicago) is closed Friday. All days off come out of one big PTO pool, including holidays, and so this is a “forced” day off for us where we lose a PTO day.
(And when I was first hired I did come in on a day like that (perhaps even that Friday) because I was short on days off and didn’t want to spend it.)
Our company has been flirting with the idea of closing our offices the last 2 weeks of the year because so few people actually come in. Last audit they did, about 15% showed up, and these are mainly the newbies who used up their 2 weeks already. The energy savings if they closed the offices would be significant. But they opt to keep the sites open despite this, because forcing people to take 7 vacation days (3 of the days are holidays already) is completely different from a morale standpoint than making it optional and having 85% of the staff take off.
Realistically speaking, of course, the 15% that are in are twiddling their thumbs because no work is generated when 85% of the workforce is gone.
I initially read this as .25 (or 1/4) days per year. Then, when I took my asshat off, I realized that it’s 25 days, and wanted to stuff my head back into my ass. I get 15 days + 11 holidays (dictated by the firm), which is pretty good in the US. The only drawback is that every single person in the firm is (I think) salaried, and our actual schedules are often determined by client needs (they have different holiday schedules). One thing I’ve noticed is that many of our large clients, particularly in NYC, will shut down for Jewish holidays. For us, that means a de facto lockout - we can’t do our jobs (and bill) without the client, but for our employees, it isn’t a holiday. This is a pain when you’re evaluated on the basis of your utilization/billable status, and leads to creatively finding ways to justify your existence.
While this is mathematically true, it is not psychologically true. I would bet that 95% of employees would prefer the unpaid day over ANY change in their hourly/salary rate.
The company is also saving money just by having the office closed - lower heating, electricity, water, etc. You don’t get that savings just by shaving off employee hourly rates.
