Holiday pay

[TNT]

I don't think I'll ever understand the way companies figure out holiday pay.

In November, my regular schedule had me scheduled off on Thursdays and Fridays. So, Thanksgiving was just a regular day off for me... I worked my 5 day, 40 hour week the way I always do.

Over the years, I've ran into different ways that companies handle situations like that when it comes to holiday pay.

At my last job, I wouldn't have gotten anything. If I weren't scheduled to work on the holiday, I didn't get any holiday pay. It didn't seem to matter that had I in fact been scheduled to work, I would have had the day off.

Okay, that makes sense... in an odd, twisted cheapass kind of way. Some of us weren't happy... we were all scheduled for 40 hours a week, so why should some have a paid day off while others didn't get anything? We all did the same job for the same company.

I've also had jobs where the employee would work the regular schedule and also get an extra day's pay, resulting in 6 days pay on that check.

That seems the obvious way to do it. All the employees get basically the same benefit.

The company I work for now managed to find yet another way to do it. I got paid for 32 hours regular time, 8 hours holiday time and 8 hours overtime. So even though I didn't actually work on Thanksgiving, I still got time and a half for one of the days I did work that week.

That seems unusually generous... I'm not complaining, mind you, but it still seems odd.

[Ryu]

I get 1.5 pay on Christmas day
No other day, just Christmas day since I dont work Thanksgiving due to school which is the only other day that gets holiday pay at my job

[SuperDan]

At my store, per the union contract:

Our six paid holidays include New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. If a holiday falls on a Sunday, it is the company's option to pay it on the Sunday, or pay it when the federal government chooses to observe the holiday (usually this happens, and usually it's Monday). Also, night crew gets to vote which night (the morning of the holiday or the morning after) is to be treated as the holiday, but the decision applies to the whole crew.

Employees with more than 120 days of service are eligible for holiday pay. Also, you forfeit your holiday pay if you call off on the holiday (if scheduled), your last scheduled shift before, or your first scheduled shift after. If you are ineligible for holiday pay due to length of service or call-offs, the week is treated as a normal week and there is no holiday pay at all or overtime unless you worked over 40 hours.

Full time associates are paid for eight hours at their regular rate for holiday pay. Part time associates are paid for six hours at their regular rate for holiday pay. Time worked on the holiday by any associate eligible for holiday pay is automatically paid at time and a half.

This is where it gets complicated (actually I don't think so, but everyone else at my place of employment seems to think it does). Part time associates earn overtime pay for hours worked over 34 and full time associates earn overtime pay for hours worked over 32 in a holiday week. Basically the holiday pay is figured in as hours worked toward your 40. I'd hope this isn't a difficult concept to grasp. Now those hours paid at time and a half on the holiday itsself, whether or not you were at 32/34 hours at the time, count as part of your overtime pay. To be paid for overtime for working more than 34 hours requires working more than 34 hours outside of the holiday. If you work five days and the holiday is one of those days, you've already received your overtime on the holiday. Again, nobody seems to get this concept either, and it generates lots of stupid questions and comments on holiday paydays. Why they ask me and not the payroll clerk, I don't know.

[TNT]

At my store, per the union contract:


This is where it gets complicated (actually I don't think so, but everyone else at my place of employment seems to think it does). Part time associates earn overtime pay for hours worked over 34 and full time associates earn overtime pay for hours worked over 32 in a holiday week.

If you work the holiday, do you get paid time and a half plus holiday pay? I had jobs where we just got the time and half... even if we were already on overtime. (Where I used to work, 80 to 100 weeks weren't unusual, so basically, the whole concept of holiday pay was foreign to me. I went to the executive director and said, "You know, we have ten paid days off a year, of which I basically get zero. That's like losing two weeks of vacation." He was entirely unimpressed.

Speaking of hard concepts to grasp, we used to have one of those under the former company. To keep it even more simple than it is, I'll pretend we had weekly paychecks. Anyhow, we got paid on Friday for the current week. In other words, if Friday was the 18th, we got paid up to Sunday the 20th. Because payroll was submitted on Tuesday, basically any sick days or such later in the week had to be worked into the next paycheck.

A lot of people worked there for years and never puzzled it out.

To add further complications, when the new company took over, we transitioned to a more standard payroll... the week closed on Sunday and we were paid the following Friday. Because that created a week's gap in the pay schedule, the company offered to "loan" us a week's pay. (In theory, it has to be paid back when employment ends, but I'm told that after a couple of years, the company gets tired of carrying it on the books and forgives it.)

I think only two of us fully understood that one.

[SuperDan]

Yes, TNT, we do get paid time and a half plus the holiday pay of 6 hours (or 8 for full time). We have a no pyramiding clause in our contract though, so if you make it to overtime before the holiday hits and you still work the holiday you still only get paid time and a half of your normal rate. I don't think our Sunday, midnight, or CSM premiums apply to the time and a half either.

[Bella_Vixen]

With my old cheapskate asshat of a boss, if you worked on a holiday, you got regular pay, plus 4 hours holiday. If you didn't work, you got 8 (or 9) hours holiday.

Sometimes, I wish I still worked for him...but then I remember that he really WAS the world's biggest asshat to work for and shudder.

[Becks]

I can't even begin to understand how they work out holiday pay at the store. Sometimes if I work on a holiday (Memorial Day, Labor Day, etc.) I get my normal hours at normal rate, then 3-4 hours "Holiday", also at the normal rate. We don't get holiday pay for Easter because "it's a concession to the employees that the store is closed." Uh...O...K... For Thanksgiving, the store is also closed, but I got 3 hours of "holiday" pay...at my normal rate. I don't remember that being the case in the past.

[Anakah]

My company doesn't even do holiday pay anymore. They make all of us work on the holidays reguardless if it was our actual day off or not. And we get paid the same as any other day. The only way to even get time and a half is if we go over fourty hours in one week.

The only cool thing my work does is we gain PTO (Paid Time Off) every pay check. I have about 44 hours so far and I've been there about seven months.

[lordlundar]

Hmm, up in Canada, there's a federal labour law covering this.

Part timers who have a holiday off: Squat unless contract says otherwise.

Part timers who work on holidays: x1.5 regular pay. (Time and a half)

Full Timers who have the holiday off: Regular pay.

Full Timers who work on holidays: x2.5 regular pay (double time and a half)

So our company basically says to full time staff "You have this day off, non-negotiable."

[irateguy]

Where I work we get 8 hrs holiday pay whether we work it or not + time and a half if we work on the holiday. We are closed christmas. we close at 5 on thanksgiving and at 6 on Christmas eve

[Byronthebanker]

All of our company's full time associates get 10 paid holidays each year. Many of us take the holiday on the day it's observed as our business units are closed. If you do work the holiday, or the holiday falls on a weekend or other day you wouldn't normally work, you then take it as a floating holiday.

Like 1/1/2005 was a Saturday if I remember - which we were closed -- so everyone got to pick another day off in the year - and get it paid - so everyone ended up with 10 paid holidays.

[kebable]

Holiday/Sunday pay in Finland

Interesting...

I get paid monthly and I generally work mon-fri, 37,5 hours a week (or 40 hours minus 30min lunchbreak each day).

Any overtime during the week or weekend I work is paid by the hour, and the rate is calculated from my monthly pay, divided by 21.5, which is the average number of workdays in a month (if I remember correctly).


During Mon-Sat first 8 hours of work is normal 1x pay. Hours 9 and 10 are 1.5x and after that hourly pay is 2x.

Any sunday/holiday work is automatically 2x (by law) or 3x on sunday if you worked at least 8 hours during saturday and normal 40hours during mon-fri (loss of sunday rest compensation).

If you work evening/night shifts, you usually get an extra ~0.5€ to 2€ to your hourly wage, and above rules still apply.


Here are some links to some Finnish union negotiaged pay ranges:
(And here it really does not matter if you belong to a union or not, pay is generally the same for all.)

Commercial sector:
http://www.pam.fi/mp/db/file_library...kat2006eng.pdf

Hotel and Catering sector:
http://www.pam.fi/mp/db/file_library...kateng2006.pdf

[ladydouji]

Holiday pay no longer exists at my company. You either get the day off(paid regular wages) or you work and get a floating holiday. Needless to say this has made old-time employees unhappy as we can remember when holidays were volunteer(and you could sign up for the shift you wanted, and were typically half shifts) and you got double time and half for the hours worked. They say that in 2007 they're going to be looking at employee satisfaction more now that our merger and the system conversions are done, so maybe we can get them to go back to that.