Leap Year – Employment Law Implications

What are the employment law implications of a Leap Year?

 2024 is a leap year, meaning February will have 29 days instead of the usual 28. Naturally, employees and employers have various queries as to how this will affect the payment of wages. Our employment law team outline the answers to most of the common queries employees and employers have regarding the employment law implications of a leap year.

Are employees required to work the additional working day?

The 29 of February 2024 is not a public bank holiday and therefore should be treated as a normal working day.

Pay and National Minimum Wage

For the vast majority of workers, their position shall remain the same. For example, workers pay who are paid on an annual will receive the same monthly salary, whilst those are paid on an hourly basis shall continue to be paid per hour that they work on a daily basis.

Employers should take care to ensure that they are still complying with National Minimum Wage requirements for workers who are paid National Minimum Wage on an annual basis/salary as a result of the additional working day.

However, workers who are paid on an hourly basis with a payment reference period of one month should be paid for the additional days’ work that they undertake in February.

Payday

Employers who pay their workers on the last working day of each month will need to consider whether they wish to pay employees on the 29 instead of the 28 February. Whilst there is no obligation for an employer following this payment structure to pay their employees on the 28 of February, employers should ensure that employees are notified a reasonable time in advance of any change to allow them time to implement any financial changes.

Termination Dates

Employers should consider and include the additional working day when providing a termination date of ‘X’ number of days to ensure employees are not paid for an additional day that they are not entitled to.

How Kerseys Solicitors can help

If you have any enquiries, please contact Annalie King, Partner and Head of our Employment Law team or Rosie Brighty, Trainee Employment Solicitor at Kerseys Solicitors. You can contact Annalie King or Rosie Brighty by telephone at Kerseys Solicitors in Colchester 01206 584584,  Kerseys Solicitors in Ipswich 01473 213311 or  Kerseys Solicitors in Felixstowe on 01394 834557 or email us at [email protected].

Kerseys Solicitors are just a click away visit our website and click “Call Me Back” and a member of our employment team will be happy to contact you at a time that is convenient to you.