Holiday Pay-- Anyone else heard of this??

imintrouble, BSN, RN · Jul 4, 2014

My husband and I both worked in union shops in my other life. Before unions went the way of the dinosaur.

Triple time is a vague memory.

The only holiday we're paid for is Chistmas. Time and a half. It rankles that I'm scheduled holidays and not paid, but I choose to stay for various reasons. Age being the biggest reason.

amoLucia · Jul 4, 2014

I have worked places where I was paid my 8 hours at time & half even if I went in 11p to the next 7a. And I would get a day off of my choosing.

Don't know if your rate is affected by your status - like full-time, with or without benefits or perdiem. And time & half is usually paid ONLY when full 40 hours WORKED (or regular pay period as RNsRWe comments). Things can vary per facility and THEY surely aren't going to be very benevolent when it comes to payroll.

If you really want to pursue it, check out any policies (in writing)your place may have.

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Jul 4, 2014

Where I work now, we're paid 8 hours of regular pay for 12 "recognized" holidays, whether or not we work on that day. If our shift falls on one of those holidays, we're paid OT. That means that tonight's graveyard shift gets OT for their shift... even though they start at 2300. Tomorrow night's graveyard doesn't, because theirs is a "Saturday" shift. Here's the kicker: effectively for 8 hours, if you work on a holiday, you get Double Time and a Half! Unfortunately, if you have to work beyond that 8 hours, you drop down to regular OT. If you work beyond 12 hours though, you get double time...

This isn't a healthcare job, we are unionized, but we had this "perk" long before we were union. This is one of those things I'll miss when I leave.

Otherwise, we're normally paid straight time to 40 hours.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Jul 4, 2014

Why would this not be legal? There is no law that requires that you receive holiday pay, period. Laws for compensation only state that you must be paid not less than minimum wage and that you must be compensated at 1.5x your regular rate for hours worked in excess of 40 per week if you are non-exempt. And only 2 hours of your shift are on the holiday. This is very legal. If you worked in the hospital I worked at, you would receive no holiday pay for working July 4 night shift. Holiday paid was paid only if more than 50% of your shift fell on the actual date of the holiday... so working 7P-7A July 4, 5/12 of it falls on the 4 and the remaining 7/12 (more than half the shift) falls on July 5... so it's a regular shift.

wooh, BSN, RN · Jul 4, 2014

Another one chiming in that yup, that's how it's done.

Ain't gonna change the system, so learn to work it.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jul 4, 2014

Another one chiming in that yup, that's how it's done.
Ain't gonna change the system, so learn to work it.

Yep. After years of cruddy schedules and/or benefits, I was fortunate to change to a job that matched my expectations of time compensation. Finally!

bluegeegoo2, LPN · Jul 4, 2014

We have 2 paid holidays a year. (Christmas and can't remember the other one.) On the other major holidays we get paid straight time, but are offered the option to cash in PTO. Nurses get 19 (8 hr) days/year the 1st year of employment. Since we can only carry over so many hours each year, it works out to where we basically get double time for holidays if we choose to. Kind of strange, but works out pretty well.

morte, LPN, LVN · Jul 4, 2014

I have always seen it done the OP expected it to be. never have seen pay for only the 24 hours on the holiday. now, the noc shift may be the first shift on the holiday or the last.....but not split...

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · 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.

Sigh....another sign of the times.

INce again nurses are given the shaft. Administration wants to cut costs and of course since their largest expensive, non billable, workforce is nurses... we are to blame.

IN the old days we got time and a half AND another day off with pay. ANYONE who started on the holiday got holiday pay. Slowly these perks have gone away. Why? To save money and we are not union fighting for the benefits and because frankly...they (administration) can.... then they get a bonus for cutting costs derived from the money they saved by dumping on the nurses. I KNOW essentially that is simplifying it....but underneath it all...it's the truth.

Is it legal? Absolutely. Federal labor laws state that you are paid for hours worked and paid OT for hours over 40/week. The is no provisional law that states you must be paid OT for holidays...only hospital policy and as long as it is equitably applied...it's legal.

It sucks...but legal.

wooh, BSN, RN · Jul 4, 2014

Here's the thing, how likely is it a facility is going to pay for more than 24 hours of holiday time? Not likely at all. These days we've gotten lucky we get it at all. So do you give it to the night shift working the night or the eve? You give it to one or the other and someone gets the shaft. At least this way, ALL of nightshift gets some perk and some shaft.

seaofclouds21, BSN, RN · Jul 4, 2014

My employer pays holiday pay for 6 holidays a year and FT staff works every other holiday. The pay is from midnight to midnight. We had night shift employees that were unhappy about the arrangement, so our manager set it up so that night shifters work the eve and night of for their required holiday. They get a full 12 hours of holiday pay this way and have the full holiday off for the holidays they don't have to work. They all are happy with this arrangement. Maybe you could talk to your boss about something similar.

calivianya, BSN, RN · Jul 4, 2014

I've only worked three places, but the policy has been exactly the same as OP is describing at all three places. You are only paid time and a half on the hours that you work on the holidays themselves, from midnight to midnight. I never knew it was different other places!