Holiday Pay-- Anyone else heard of this??

MrChicagoRN, RN · Jul 3, 2014

This is pretty standard. You are paid holiday pay based on when you work, not when your shift starts. A similar situation is that the weekend for nights often starts at 11pm Friday evening, and ends after Saturday evening shift. Those working "Sunday night" may not be getting w/e differential.

The flip side is that 1/2 the time you will Not be "working the holiday" but will be getting the holiday pay when you are there in the early holiday hours. It all balances out in the end.

mo16 · Jul 3, 2014

That is how it was at my last job (not as an RN but at a hospital), so what I did was that I requested to work the night before the holiday and the night of, I don't know if that is an option for you.

Mr. Murse · Jul 3, 2014

My job is like that. You only get holiday pay for the hours you work within the actual 24 hour period of the holiday itself. So night shift employees like myself kind of get screwed.

Honestly though I just don't care anymore. It's not worth my peace of mind to stress and argue about it. Sure I disagree with the principle of it, but sometimes you just have to pick your battles........

Editorial Team / Admin · Jul 3, 2014

Holiday pay at my facility is midnight on the holiday until 2359 that night. So if I were working tonight, I would be getting 1 hour of regular pay followed by the rest of the shift as holiday pay. Pretty standard for everywhere I've worked, including those non-nursing positions. We are required to use our save "paid time off" hours if we are not working the holiday.

sharpeimom · Jul 3, 2014

That's the way our hospital paid too. You were given every other holiday off plus your birthday was treated as a personal holiday as well. You could either work it and get paid at time-and-a-half or take it off as an "extra" day on a weekend or before or after your days on.

We worked 3 12's and only having to work for two days that week, was great!

psu_213, BSN, RN · Jul 3, 2014

This is how it works at my facility. Someone works from 7p July 4 to 7a July 5. They are paid holiday time for the 7p-MN part, regular time for the rest of the shift.

xoemmylouox, ASN, RN · Jul 4, 2014

Most of my employers handled it the way the OPs does. In fact at my previous PDN job you were only paid if you worked the day the office observed the holiday. So if it fell on the weekend it didn't count as the holiday. That was unfair.

amoLucia · Jul 4, 2014

Ditto like the other posters have commented. That's why some staff (who know all the ins and outs) will gladly work the 'Eve of x holiday' so that they have the real holiday off, yet they get the $$$. And they sign up ASAP when the list comes out.

Just to give you a heads up --- check out how the change from daylight savings time to the other one gets paid. You know, the extra hour and the less hour change. Check it out!

NurseQT · Jul 4, 2014

It wouldn't balance out in the end though. Just because I have every other holiday off doesn't mean I'll be working the night before on those days, I would only be scheduled to work the day before if it was a regularly scheduled shift. Case in point, Memorial Day was my holiday off as was the night before so I didn't receive any holiday pay. I am off tonight but work tomorrow which is my holiday but will only get 2 hours worth of holiday pay. One of the other NOC nurses worked the night before Memorial Day as well as Memorial Day, she also works tonight. So she will have received 14 hours of holiday pay where as I will have received 2. Come Labor Day she'll have 22 hours and I will still only have 2. How is that right?

In my 14+ years of nursing I have never encountered this before. Holiday NOC shifts were either the night before or the night of, depending on the facility, if the holiday was the night before than everyone working that shift was paid holiday pay, anyone working the night of was paid straight pay because it was no longer the holiday. And if the holiday was the day of than anyone working the night before was paid their regular time and everyone working the night of was paid holiday pay.

if it's my holiday to work but I'm only going to get holiday pay until midnight than I should be able to punch out and go home at midnight since by their theory it's no longer the holiday.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to rant but this really ticks me off. I have a family and young kids, if I have to sacrifice my time with them to work holidays than I should be compensated just the same as the nurses who work the other two shifts. It's BS.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jul 4, 2014

Just a moment to address the idea "is this even legal?" when talking about how holiday pay is offered.

There is no law requiring any employer to offer paid holidays, period. They are only required to pay time-and-a-half for hours in excess of the standard pay week/pay period (and it's not always a 40 hour week either, btw).

We've become accustomed, in the US, to getting six or seven paid holidays, but it's all up to our employer's generosity if we get any at all. People either accept the arrangement, or work somewhere else. Or.....that's where unions come in

psu_213, BSN, RN · Jul 4, 2014

Case in point, Memorial Day was my holiday off as was the night before so I didn't receive any holiday pay. I am off tonight but work tomorrow which is my holiday but will only get 2 hours worth of holiday pay. One of the other NOC nurses worked the night before Memorial Day as well as Memorial Day, she also works tonight.

I am a little confused. How would a different way to pay holiday time have resulted in more holiday pay for your Memorial Day? Also, you comment on the sacrifice you make on holidays yet you are not happy that you had copious time off for Memorial Day.

In think in the end, what it boils down to--this is a fairly common way to dole out holiday pay. You may not like it, but this is how it is done many places. I'l sorry that you are saddened by it.