Relax. If you’re at work today, you’re probably being paid for it.
Some folks worry that Feb. 29, or leap day, is a ripoff for the roughly 40% of U.S. workers whose compensation is set on an annual, rather than an hourly basis. That’s because there’s no extra pay for those workers despite the slightly longer year.
But 2016 is one of those leap years that doesn’t include an extra weekday. Because the year started on a Friday, what we get is an extra Saturday — for a total of 53 of them this year — rather than an extra Monday. The extra Saturday will show up on Dec. 31.
The last leap year, which was in 2012, didn’t have an extra weekday either. The next leap year that will stick us with an extra weekday will be 2020, in case you want to get a head start on complaining about it.
A year typically includes 261 weekdays. On occasion — two non-leap years out of every seven — there are only 260 weekdays in a year. We can even get a short work-year in a leap year on occasion. It will be 2028 the next time that happens.
For the nearly 60% of workers who are paid on an hourly basis, the calendar doesn’t make a difference. They’ll be paid for whatever days they do or don’t work.
And of course there are plenty of salaried workers who work weekends. Whether this year is good or bad for them depends on what days they are off. If they’re working seven days a week, they’ve got a lot bigger problems than an extra day on the calendar.
