You may be working for free today
Here's how much extra pay salaried workers are due for their extra day of work on Leap Day this year.
This post comes from Danielle Kurtzleben at partner site U.S. News & World Report.
Leap year brings an extra day to get things done, try something new and work for free.
While hourly workers are given an extra day for earnings this year, salaried workers will get the same pay as a regular, 365-day year.
So how much money are salaried American workers missing out on when they put in that extra shift?
There are 261 weekdays in 2012 with the inclusion of leap day. (There are also holidays, but many companies consider those "paid" holidays, and some workers have to work those days, anyway.) So, for example, dividing a reporter's average yearly salary of $43,780 by 260 (leap day minus one) reveals that an extra day of that reporter's work is worth 168 extra dollars. That reporter's editor, meanwhile, is missing out on 228 extra dollars this year, given an average salary of $59,340.
In contrast, bigwigs like New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey are owed an extra 0.4 cents since they accept annual salaries of only $1. (Post continues below.)
Below is a list of workers and, if salaried on an annual basis, how much they are missing out on due to Leap Day:
- Secretaries and administrative assistants (excluding legal, medical and executive): $123
- Reporter: $168
- Clergy: $186
- High school teacher (except special and career/technical education): $215
- Editor: $228
- Registered nurse: $260
- Network and computer systems administrator: $278
- Airline pilot: $443
- Doctor (general practitioner): $669
- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: $82.
- Speaker of the House John Boehner: $860
- Surgeon: $867
- President Barack Obama: $1,538
- Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs: $7,692 (reflects 2011 $2 million base salary only, not total $9 million disclosed 2011 pay package).
More on U.S. News & World Report and MSN Money:
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Today is still a Wednesday, is it not? I am a salaried employee, and I get paid for 52 weeks per year, Monday through Friday weeks. So whether today is the 29th of the month, or the 1st of the month, it is still just another Hump-Day like any other Wednesday.
I have to say that these folks who come up with such ridiculous ideas have way too much time on their hands and ought to get REAL jobs.
I agree with those who say the story is all wrong. The story focuses on the number of the day in February (29), but we all continue to live and work by the same seven-day work week of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Remove the calendar numbers and you'll see another day hasn't been added to this week, so no one is working an extra day.
Being Feb. 29 really matters to those born on this day. And I wish them a very Happy Birthday (dude, party like its 2008)!
My teaching contract is very specific on the number of days I get paid for working. I am not "owed" any more for a leap year than any other year.
FYI - those weeks we don't work over Christmas and spring break, we don't get paid for - they are not contracted days.
Another poorly thought out article by MSNmoney.
The jobs that are listed all require certain trade skills and experience, and all of them are jobs that need the immense parallel and spatial processing of the human brain in case "the plan" goes awry and emergency training has to kick in.
Airplanes? Yeah, let's keep pilots for emergencies, good idea.
Hospitals? I think Nurses and Doctors are probably a good thing to keep there in case some medication doesn't work properly or there is an unknown diagnosis that needs to be treated.
Computer related controller? Well, you can automate it, but you can't guarantee it won't screw up so you have to keep someone around to fix the things that weren't properly programmed or automated.
Teachers? Yeah, being able to shift from topic to topic is something that requires humans, and judgment calls are made all the time regarding discipline, helping weak students, challenging advanced students, etc...
Clergy? They have to do their standard preaching, helping, hypocrisy. Robots are very bad at that kind of stuff.
Government officials? Someone has to make laws, judge them, execute them, enforce them, take money under the table from special interests, and have a coke party with hookers.
Giovan...I work for a manufacturing company here in the US. YESS..there is still manufacturing done here. Not assembly line robot style work. But real hand made products that we sell to the public.
Few people take pride or are willing to pay the price for American made products. Look at your TV, your DVD, and maybe even your car. That's why this country is such a mess now.
Teachers work the same number of teaching days every year in our local systems. Most RN's are hourly. Surgeons bill out an extra days work, so don't tell me they aren't making a percentage of that. Employees that are on salary typically work all kinds of hours and are paid accordingly. Average that one day that they work over the four years and see what you get.
Why does anyone think they are OWED anything for doing their job at a rate they negotiated? Why would you even want to consider that O'Bama was losing out on $1538 for 1 single day when that is more than most people make in a couple of weeks? Ridiculous.
@mikeantny lays it out nicely below but here's the additional gotcha: if you are paid weekly or bi-weekly (common practice for US companies) you will still get paid and will, in most years, gross more than your salary because the calendar doesn't have exactly 364 days/52 weeks/260 work days.
If you are paid monthly or semi-monthly (less common but not that unusual in the US), then you in fact will earn the same amount of money this month (with 21 work days) that you did in Feb 2011 (20 work days).
The bottom line is this: nobody negotiates their salary and says they are not working Feb 29th without extra pay. It's not a secret that this extra day shows up every leap year.
Though not relevant to the mathematics of this discussion, it bears repeating that a salaried employee will, in reality, never work exactly 8.00 hrs per day, 5 days per week, for 52 weeks per year. It just doesn't happen.
Happy March eve!
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