Your employees are not working for free on 29 February – how to explain…

Science tells us that once every four years we need a leap year to account for the fact that the earth moves around the sun in 365 days and one quarter.

But unfortunately for HR and payroll professionals, this leads to a variety of tabloid news stories worrying employees into thinking they’re working for free on the last day of February – which we know isn’t true.

So, to avoid your employees leaping to conclusions, we've put together a few tips on reassuring your teams…

The message

For salaried employees

To avoid your salaried employees worrying that they’re not getting a fair deal from you in this month’s pay, gently remind them about the terms of their contract when it comes to leap year pay. Leap years have already been factored in your standard annual pay, unless your employment contracts include a clause that says otherwise.

The same logic applies to annual leave – if an employee would prefer not to work on 29 February, they should book the day off as they would usually. There’s no legal entitlement to have extra holiday entitlement to account for a leap year.

For employees paid by the hour

Remind your workers that they may have a whole extra day’s work to claim this month, and advise them early if they need to do anything differently to make sure they get this pay. Depending on how your payroll accounts for the extra day, it may also be helpful to let them know when they’ll be paid for the extra day.

Get ready for anything

The anomalies of a leap year is exactly where Cascade, our HR and payroll management system, thrives. Either automate your payroll, freeing up your time to deal with the more human aspect of your role, or outsource the hassle through our managed payroll service.

Speak to our expert team about starting your free trial.