Human Resource Blog

Paid Time Off

We have employees working at different client sites.

If a client observes a holiday, the employee also gets a holiday even though if that holiday is not observed by the employee’s company.

In such a case, can the employer adjust this holiday taken against his accrued Paid Time Off or should the employer pay the employee for that day.

Thanks

Lets use Memorial Day as an example. As we understand it, you have employees working at various locations for different clients. Memorial Day is not a paid holiday for your company, and many of your employees work on that day. However, it is a paid holiday for one of your clients, the XYZ Corp. So the employee who works at that location is off — there is no work for the employee to do at XYZ Corp. on Memorial Day.

If the employee is hourly or non-exempt, the employee need not be paid for the holiday. The best practice would be to give the employee the option of using PTO time to be paid for Memorial Day, or taking the day off unpaid.

If the employee is exempt, and he or she works part of that payroll week, the employee must be paid for the holiday. You could deduct PTO time from the employees accrued balance to cover the day, but the exempt employee in this example must be paid his or her usual weekly salary for the week that includes Memorial Day. Another option might be for you to ask or require the employee to work from home on that day, if this is possible (given the type of work that you do.)

Even if the employee has no accrued PTO available, the exempt employee must be paid his or her entire weekly salary for the week that includes Memorial Day (unless the employee takes the entire payroll week off.)