Happy leap day! Or not so happy for those on annual salaries, who will in all probability be putting in a whole day’s labour for free today (29 February 2008).
In an interesting article on its website, the BBC asks to whom does 29 February belong?
While time remains a decidedly abstract concept, and philosophers might debate whether anything can ever truly be owned, there is a strong argument to be made that employers own 29 February. The BBC observes:
If you're on an annual salary, you will get the same pay as normal this year, while working one extra day. Is 29 February just another working Friday, or a sneaky bonus for your employer?
As a (comparatively) wise man once asked: “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”
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Comments (3)
Or one could argue that three years out of four employers get one less day out of each employee for their money.
Posted by Andrew | February 29, 2008 10:37 AM
Posted on February 29, 2008 10:37
I'm not entirely convinced. If you are in a salaried job, you are being paid for your efforts over the year, and the fact that HR departments need to calculate a daily rate for, eg, buying and selling additional days of holiday, misleads people into thinking they are paid daily. In any event, one working day is less than 0.4% of the working year (on a 260 working days a year basis). Over four years that's less than 0.1% of additional work. If you're paid daily, of course, the whole argument about being exploited falls apart.
And how does it work out over a working lifetime of 40 years? No-one is adding in extra Mondays or Tuesdays, so if you suffer from additional working days you also benefit from additional non-working days.
Posted by mark crail | February 29, 2008 11:58 AM
Posted on February 29, 2008 11:58
..Not to mention time lost browsing the internet and commenting on blogs about 29th Feb. (Note: its now my dinner hour... or is it?)
Posted by Phil | February 29, 2008 12:03 PM
Posted on February 29, 2008 12:03