I have worked for the State of New York for the past 28 years and have found something that troubles me. Every four years there is a leap year and a February 29. I have discovered that all the paychecks in a leap year after 2/29 are reduced to pay for the extra day worked. If I were to work an extra day for any other reason during any given year I would be paid for that day in excess of my yearly salary. The explaination the State gives is that we are salaried employees so our salary cannot be raised by one day in years with a leap year so our earnings are reduced enough to pay for the extra day and keep our yearly salary the same. We have worked (during those years that 2/29 falls on a weekday) an extra day without full pay and are penalized for the rest of the calendar year with reduced salary to pay for 2/29. Is this right or fair? My perspective is that I have given the State of New York about one weeks work without being paid fully for an additional weeks work. Is this some sort of bookkeeping gimmick or are over 200,000 state employees getting ripped off every four year?
Do you mean to say that all your paychecks for the rest of the year (March through December) are smaller than the paychecks from January and February?
The same sort of phenomenon should happen most years, anyway, when December 25th or January 1st or July 4th may fall on weekends. The total number of “work days” in a year should be figured out so that your salary can truly be based on a “per hour” basis if there is to be a fairness to your salary, assuming you are paid on a “per work day” or “hour” basis. If, however, your salary is based on a yearly salary and the policies for paying your salary are fixed, and you agreed to work for the State and whatever policies they have, then the State is in the right and you’re just a slave to the system. Unfairness might happen if the rules change while you’re working there… You can always quit and go to law school and then sue the State!
Maybe you’re being overpaid three years out of four.
Salary is Salary - Divide the annual by the pay-periods per year and receive a check. Converting to hours or days is, IMHO, a mistake.
At the commercial companies I have worked for, we are paid on biweekly pay periods and each pay period is our annual salary divided by 26. So that’s not a true calendar year either, but that’s how they do it by convention. So we get paid on a pro-rated basis for the number of chargeable days (working, holiday, vacation, sick).
What is your pay period?
Your contract will specify your remuneration as either an annual, monthly, weekly, daily or hourly rate.
If it is annual or monthly, I’m afraid you’re stuck. Your pay for the year or month is the sum promised, which does not depend on the length of the year or month.
If it is weekly, daily or hourly then you should be getting paid for the number of weeks, days or hours worked, regardless of what calender year or month they fall into.
We are paid every two weeks. Most years there are 26 pay periods. During a leap year, every pay period after 2/29 is slightly reduced to pay for the extra day in order to keep my salary the same every year be it leap year or no. It appears as if it is double jeopardy. Not being paid for an additonal days work and having my salary reduced for all the remaining pay periods until the end of the year. I have been strongly advocating my Union, the Public Employees Federation, to try to see if it would be possible for its members to be paid for an addtional work day during a leap year. I have not received a satisfactory reponse from them. They did tell me that every 11 years you break even but being somewhat mathematically challanged I cannot see that. If I were to work overtime for 8 hours during any year I would be paid for that day in excess of my yearly salary. But during a leap year you are penalized for the entire year in order to keep your salary at the same level.
I agree. Otherwise there’s all sorts of messing about you could do. For example, in non-leap years, if Jan 1 falls on a weekday, there are 261 weekdays in the calendar year. If on a weekend, there are 260. Should you get a day’s pay docked two years out of seven (actually, leap years confuse that calculation too)?
For monthly paid people, if you leave your job in March, do you get your pay docked because you got paid 2 full months (average = 60.8 days) but you were there for only 59 (60 in a leap year).
If you get paid every two weeks then every 14*4=56 years you’ll effectivlely have gotten an “extra” paycheck and the money for those “unpaid” leap year days.
I was going to comment on that but then I noticed
If your calculation in the OP that you’ve given them a week’s worth of work over the years is based upon five leap days, then you have been working there for 17 or more years under this agreement, right? I’d be careful about raising a stink, even with the union.
I work Mon-Fri and according to my records:
2002 2/29 Tue
1996 2/29 Thur
1988 2/29 Mon
1984 2/29 Wed
1980 2/29 Fri
I was hired in 1974 so according to my data I have worked a full week for the State of New York with less pay not only for that day but for the remainder of each of the above years. From where I come from it is a full days work for a full days pay and not a penality to subsidize one additonal days work every four years.
2002 2/29 Tue ???
Theres no leap year this year- the next leap year is in 2004 !
I meant 2000, sorry about that. That 2/29 fell on a Tuesday…My humble apologies…Still comes out to a week if you work five days a week the way I do.
What did they do in 1992? You still had an extra day in 1992, even though 2/29 didn’t fall on a weekday.
OK, time to put what I really think: you are actually making a fuss because you, a salaried employee, have worked an extra, unpaid 2 hours per year on average? Most salaried people I know do more than an extra 2 hours most weeks. But the clue is in the OP: “I have worked for the State”.
Incredible.
Off topic somewhat, but my wife used to work nights; if she happened to be on duty when we switch from DST back to GMT, she would have to work an extra hour unpaid (it would have worked to her advantage in the spring, when we swith the other way, but she always seemed to be on leave for that one),
I’ve been trying to follow this but it’s really confusing. Questions:
- You are salaried? How is your pay determined? Monthly or annual?
- What is your pay period? Monthly, semi-monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly?
I am paid an annual salary. I am paid biweekly. There are normally 26 pay periods per most years. You normally work X number of days per year in off leap years. In a leap year you work X+1 days. But, during a leap year I am not only paid for X but my salary is reduced for the remainder of the year to pay for that day. So in reality the state is getting an extra day of work every four years, in the event that 2/29 falls on a weekday, and your are paid less biweekly for the remainder of the year to pay for it. If for any reason I was to exceed my X number of days with overtime etc. I would be paid for X+overtime days with no reduction in my remaining checks for the year. The states perspective is that there is no problem if you work an extra day every four years, you are still a salaried employee and have an unchangeable salary no matter how many days are in any given year. A days work for a “full” days pay does not seem to matter to New York state.
Here is a New York State Attendence and Leave Policy that may apply, I’m not sure. According to it, it appears that employees get twelve holidays, and this list of holidays for 2003 bears that out. 2003 started on a Wednesday and will end on a Thursday, so there are 52 weekends (104 days). That’s 365 minus 104+12, or 249 working days. In the last leapyear, 2000, this list of holidays for 2000 shows that New Year’s Day, Lincoln’s Birthday, and Veteran’s Day fell on a weekend, so you apparently didn’t get those days off. However, 2000 started on a Saturday, and ended on a Sunday, so there were 53 weekends that year. That’s 366 minus 106+10, or 250 working days.
Must be in your contract somewhere. 
insider,
First of all, you are either not paid for that day, or are paid less every day of the year, not both.
Secondly, your pay is set in the contract as an annual rate. Not as a daily rate or an hourly rate. Although for purposes of overtime an hourly rate will be figured out, you are paid a certain sum of money for working a full year, whether that full year has 365 or 366 days. Just like your rent is the same whether the month has 28,29,30 or 31 days.
Just to clarify, New York State doesn’t use “salaried” the way it’s normally used. It doesn’t mean the same as overtime-exempt. It just means the pay is quoted as a yearly figure, unlike other state jobs for which the rate is set as a hourly or per-diem figure.