Legal Question in Employment Law in California

My company pays holidays for an employee if over 90 days. I have been with the company for almost 4 years. I understood that if I called in sick a day after a holiday I would not be paid for that holiday (have never seen that in writing but I knew it was common knowlege at the company). With that being said this past Friday I left the office 3 hours early, but had worked a full 5 hours for that day. I am being told today that since I left early I am not getting paid for this Monday (President's Day) in which our office was closed and I had no option to work. Normally I would be paid a full 8 hours for this day as a paid holiday and now I am not. Is this legal? I feel like if I put in 5 hours that constitues for something. I am not able to use any vacation or sick time to make up for the 8 hours I'm losing (I have plenty of hours accrued and I am not on probation for a work violation).

Thank you!


Asked on 2/22/11, 12:12 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

You don't say whether you are an exempt employee or not. If you are non-exempt, their policy is legal. If you are an exempt salaried employee it is not. This is because in order to treat an employee as exempt, they must pay in minimum units of one day. So they are not permitted to distinguish between a 5 hour day and an 8 hour day worked. If you are non-exempt, however, they can require a full day work in order to earn the benefit of a paid day off, since the paid day off is not wages for working, but rather a benefit.

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Answered on 3/15/11, 10:23 am


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