Must salaried employees be paid for company holidays? 01-14-2009

I am starting a new position as a salaried exempt employee. I am told that I will not be paid for company holidays such as Christmas, New Years, etc. until I attain 6 months of service. Therefore if one day of a 5 day week is a company holiday where the facility is closed, I would only be paid 4/5 of my weekly pay. Is this legal within the definition of a salaried exempt employee? What recourse do I have with my new employer? I don't want to make a bad impression.

Ann Kiernan replies:

According to the federal Department of Labor, salaried exempt employees can have their pay docked only for: personal days; sick days if there is a sick pay plan; to offset jury fees, witness fees, or military pay; as a penalty for violating major safety or other workplace conduct rules; or for unpaid FMLA time. Holidays are not on the list, so you should be paid for Christmas and New Year's Day, just like everybody else!

You may want to show the DOL website cited above to your payroll department, and ask them to straighten out your pay records. Good luck!

Information here is correct at the time it is posted. Case decisions cited here may be reversed. Please do not rely on this information without consulting an attorney first.