The Injustice of Leap Day (for some)

The payout of Leap Day (for others)

Professor David A. Friedman, who brought us the line, “Nonintervention produces a ‘nonevent,’" drew our attention to the fact that Leap Day provides an extra day of work with no extra pay for salaried workers. Some of us have long thought that non-exempt status was the better way to go, if you could make enough money off it. Exempt workers, what you generally consider “salaried” though a lot of non-exempt workers are on salaries too and get vacation time and benefits, basically work as much as they feel they have to or their employers pressure them to or they want to no matter how many hours, and they don’t get paid more (no overtime). We all know people who never seem to stop working. Some of us are these people. Others of us were these people. These people create their own Leap Day unpaid contribution almost every week of the year by working constantly. But Leap Day does create one extra work day for which those salaried among us get no extra pay.

I have worked lots of non-exempt jobs though I’ve spent more years in exempt jobs. These days I have a part time gig on which I do work I enjoy for good causes and get paid hourly, for the hours I actually work. Leap Day is good for me because I am making money that I would not have made in February, were it not for the blessed 29th.

Professor Friedman also pointed out that we should have the extra day in summer, or have some way that it results in an extra weekend day. It seems to me that the easiest way to handle this problem is to make Leap Day another national holiday! That way no matter when it falls out, there could be a day off.

Of course there is never justice in these matters. When I was working as an hourly Case Investigator during the worst of COVID, I lost money on every national holiday when we couldn’t work. Many workers do not get holiday pay, so they would get nothing extra for working on Leap Day.

With all the lawyers, judges, public health professionals and people of good conscience who subscribe to this blog, surely we could draft some proposed Leap Day reforms that would remedy the great injustice of which I was blissfully unaware until Professor Friedman pointed it out. Post your suggestions in the comments.

Meanwhile, guess who was called an angel at the vet? You guessed it! Loviefluffy! She got a vaccine today. I thought she needed blood work but there was a mix up with the reminder and she didn’t. She has a slight thyroid condition that is kept under good control with medicated fish flavored treats produced by the compounding pharmacy at a cost of $63 per month. She won’t take the pills (no not in food either) so treats are our only option. She loves her medicated fish flavored treats. She asks for them at the appointed times of day twelve hours apart. They are like an appetizer before her wet food. Needless to say I will do anything for my cat.

I read some stuff today before work, but I worked late and now it’s late and my carpal tunnel is acting up so I will give you the day off from your Israel etc. readings. With just one small caveat: Listen to Israel Update with Gadi Taub and Michael Doran. I wish Gadi Taub’s Twitter feed was translated into English more often, but it’s not, so I will learn to read Hebrew. I know it is not the point of the show, but it’s really cute how he messes up English words, or can’t find the right one so comes up with an interesting description of the word he’s searching for until Michael Doran (who is American) figures it out. I hope that when I mess up Hebrew words, Israelis will find it cute and not annoying.

A Happy Leap Day to all, and to all a good night

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