Human Resource Blog

compensation

We pay our employees every Friday for that week. By a quirk in calendar we have 53 weeks of payroll. Employees are assigned an annual salary (divided by 52) with 53 pay periods this year do we divide the annual salary by 53 or do we add a week to the annual pay? We are in New York state. Thanks

Yes, you still have to pay the employees their usual salary for the week, even though there are 53 weeks in the year. Federal and state laws require that you pay employees for all the time they work. An employee who works the last week of the year must be paid for that week — even in the unusual event that there are 53 weeks in the year.

There are 365 days in the year (or 366 during leap year). There are only 364 days in 52 weeks. Therefore, every 5 or 6 years you will face this problem.

Under the federal FLSA or Fair Labor Standards Act, salaried employees are paid a weekly salary — not an annual or a monthly salary. Although you may calculate the salary by taking the annual pay and dividing it by 52, that does not mean that any employee ever has to work for free.

This answer is valid in New York and every other state.