Does Your Holiday Policy Need A Tune Up?

During the last several months, we have received numerous calls from clients about holidays and holiday pay. As we enter the new year, this might be a good time to take a close look at your holiday policy and ensure that it accurately reflects how you deal with holidays and holiday pay and, if necessary, to adjust it to reflect how you want to handle them during 2011.

First, a few general rules:

• there is no federal law requiring employers to celebrate holidays or to pay their employees for these days. Some states have special pay requirements for employees who work on a holiday, but there are no state law requirements that private employers grant and pay for holidays;
• because there is no governing law, employers are free to recognize as many or as few holidays as they want. Employers are also free to pay holiday pay or not pay holiday pay, except where a state law may require payment if the employee works on the holiday; and