Human Resource Blog

Paying Back Hours for Federal Holidays

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My boyfriend just completed his first year of employment with a company in Virginia. At the end of 2007, his employer said that he “owed” the company the missed hours for federal holidays in 2007. Unfortunately, he had no way to access the office on the holidays in question since the office was closed (literally he had no key), and therefore it was impossible for him to work on those days. Is this legal? He has been docked his pay for these days. Thank you for your help.

From the question, it sounds as if this employee was paid for hours that he did not actually work. If that’s not the case, please post another question.

 

There is no state or federal law that requires employers to pay current employees for time that they did not work.

If your boyfriend is an hourly employee, presumably he has turned in a timesheet that inaccurately listed hours worked on those days. This is actually falsifying company payroll records, and at most organizations an employee who did this could be fired. So just requiring him to pay the money back seems a very mild punishment.

Even if the employee is on salary, companies have the right to not pay when the employee performs no work during the day, especially if the office is closed.

Under federal law, as well as state laws, employers have the right to correct an overpayment by making a deduction to the worker’s paycheck. As long as the employee is still being paid at least the minimum wage for hours worked in this pay period, there is absolutely no legal problem here.

If the employee worked from home or another location on the federal holidays, and can show evidence to support this, he may have a valid claim under federal or state wage and hour law. However, it sounds like the employee performed  no work and simply assumed that he would be paid even if the building was locked and the business was closed.

Many companies offer the benefit of paid holidays like Memorial Day and Labor Day. At those companies, the employee is paid, even though the business is closed for the holiday.

However, there is no state or federal law that requires employers to give paid holidays as a benefit.