Employee Wisconsin

[Doug_G]

I am a salaried, year round, exempt, employee. Our company wants to close over the holiday week of Dec. 26th. I was informed that I will not be receving our standard Holiday pay for the 26th & 30th.(Christmas or the 1/2 day for New years Eve.) Is this legal?

[Beth3]

What reason did your employer give? Are you new to the organization and not yet eligible for holiday pay? That's legal, as well as your employer cancelling paid holidays entirely.

FYI, exempt employees need not be paid for any week in which they perform no work. If your company is shutting-down from Dec 26 - Dec 30th, they don't have to pay anyone, exempt or non-exempt.

[Betty3]

I am a salaried, year round, exempt, employee. Our company wants to close over the holiday week of Dec. 26th. I was informed that I will not be receving our standard Holiday pay for the 26th & 30th.(Christmas or the 1/2 day for New years Eve.) Is this legal?

Yes, additional pay for a holiday (holiday pay) is not required unless you
have a binding employment contract to the contrary. It seems you will
still be receiving your regular fixed weekly salary if I am reading your
post correctly. (just no add'l. holiday pay)

[DAW]

Agreed. No employer is forced to make any employee Exempt Salaried. Microsoft could treat Bill Gates as non-exempt if they wanted to. But if the employer chooses to classify an employee as Exempt Salaried, then they are legally required to follow the 29 CFR 541.602 Salaried Basis rules, which place certain restrictions on docking the salary. If I read the question correctly, the employee is going to work something like 4-8-8-8-4-0-0, with the missing time being scheduled facility closing due to the holiday. Assuming that "Bob" is Exempt Salaried, assuming the above facts, assuming that Bob normally gets paid $1,000/week, then under the 541.602 rules, Bob must be paid the entire normal salary of $1,000 without reductions. HOWEVER these rules talk about the salary only, not which pocket the salary comes from. The feds do not care even a little bit about vacation/PTO, so it would be perfectly legal to reduce the vacation/PTO balance to cover the missing time.
http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text....1.1.22.7.85.3

[Beth3]

DAW and Betty - I think we're not on the same page in interpreting the OP's post.

My take is that he won't be working at all the week of Dec 26th; his employer is shutting down that week. He's not asking about not being paid for the time not worked, he's asking if it's lawful for him not to receive holiday pay for the company observed holidays, although he hasn't explained why he won't be getting holiday pay.

Either way, if he doesn't work that week, he doesn't have to be paid at all. If his employer decides not to pay him for the full day and half-day of holidays they had/have scheduled, they don't have to pay him that either.

[DAW]

Agreed that if the Salaried Exempt employee does not work the entire workweek (which may or may not be the same thing as a calendar week), then the entire workweek can be unpaid.

[Betty3]

I took it the same as you, Beth - that he would not be working at all
that week though I took it as he was getting paid his regular fixed
salary just not extra holiday pay. Agree that if the OP does no work
in the workweek, OP doesn't need to be paid at all - just seemed as if
OP was being paid regular pay. Post not entirely clear.

[J.J. Brown]

Are they allowing you to apply PTO to any of the shutdown days or the unpaid holidays?

It seems like if that was the plan, they would have given you a lot more notice.

Have they said that you can't work that week at all? Can't check email or voicemail, can't be on call for emergencies, etc.?