Extra pay for a leap year??

Should employees be paid more for the ‘extra day’ they will be working on the 29th February due to the leap year?

We were recently asked whether an employer needs to pay their employees more in February because of the ‘extra day’ due to 2012 being a leap year. The last leap year in 2008 saw campaigns by protestors for a ‘National Duvet Day’ which gained considerable interest!

The reality is that these kinds of campaigns are unlikely to gain any footing. It really depends on how employees are paid. Salaried employees will be paid as normal, as they have since 1582 when we saw our first leap year. Those employees lucky enough to be paid on a weekly basis will receive an extra day’s pay.

There have been suggestions of granting employees the 29^th February as a day off as a gesture of goodwill. Let’s think about this practically. Given there are normally 30 or 31 days each month, employers could argue that they themselves are being short-changed for paying employees the same each month, regardless of how many days are in the month.

If any of your employees come to you to talk about extra pay, remind them that they knew when they signed their contract at the beginning of employment that some months are longer than others and their pay has been and will always be the same every month. 


After all the UK workforce has had a while to get used to the idea of an extra day every four years.


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