How do weekdays, holidays or pre-holidays affect your paycheck and what are the differences between monthly and hourly workers?
What are the weekdays, holidays and days before holidays? How do they affect your paycheck? Saturday weekday or public holiday? These are some of the most frequently asked questions we are asked about the employment relationship. Let's start by saying that the employment contract provides for the company the obligation to recognize the salary to the employee for the manual and / or intellectual activity rendered in a certain time interval, usually coinciding with the single month.
With the exception of those (think of coordinated and continuous collaborators) whose remuneration is determined on a flat-rate basis, the remuneration paid by the company is strictly connected with the quantity and location of the hours worked. Let's now analyze in detail what are the weekdays, holidays and pre-holidays and what effects they have on the salary, both in the case in which you work and in the case in which you "enjoy" the holidays.
Weekdays, holidays and days before holidays: how they affect the paycheck
As mentioned in the introduction, the economic consequences on remuneration vary depending on whether the work takes place on weekdays, pre-holidays or holidays. There are also circumstances in which holidays and Sundays affect the remuneration even if they are not worked, but simply enjoyed.
In addition to the variables determined by "how many" and "which" days are worked, it is appropriate to consider the different methods of calculating remuneration.
The most common hypothesis provides for the recognition of a fixed monthly salary. Initially recognized to executives, middle managers and office workers, the so-called “monthly” remuneration was significantly extended to blue-collar workers as well, with a view to equalizing it with the other professional categories.
In this type of calculation, the unit of measure of the salary is the whole month. The consequence is soon said: the gross remuneration is identical in all the months of validity of the employment contract, except for:
- Recruitment or termination in the course of the month;
- Unpaid absences;
- Overtime / extra work or surcharges for holiday or night work.
On the contrary, in the residual cases of employees paid by the hour, the hourly wage, calculated on the basis of the remuneration identified in the employment contract, is multiplied by the hours actually worked in the month, with the exception of absences.
What are the weekdays
By exclusion, weekdays identify all those dates of the year other than holidays and Sundays. Depending on the working hours defined in the employment contract (or in the agreements subsequently between the parties), working days are potentially workable:
- From Monday to Friday (so-called "short week");
- From Monday to Saturday (so-called "long week").
With regard to workers paid on a fixed monthly basis, it is superfluous to speak of wages on weekdays. Since the unit of measurement is the whole month, the remuneration recognized is identical regardless of attendance/absences, with the exception of business day:
- Overtime (rendered over the limit of full-time hours) or additional work (worked beyond part-time hours);
- Surcharges for night work;
- Unpaid absences such as unpaid leave, suspensions of the employment relationship, unjustified absences, strikes.
Different speech for employees paid by the hour. In this case, the gross salary is equal to the hours actually worked on the weekdays of the month.
What are the holidays
In addition to Sunday and the feast of the patron saint, the following religious and civil holidays are considered holidays:
- First day of the year;
- Epiphany (January 6);
- Liberation (April 25);
- Monday after Easter;
- Labor Day (May 1st);
- Foundation of the Italian Republic (June 2);
- Assumption (August 15);
- All Saints (November 1st);
- Immaculate (December 8);
- Christmas (December 25);
- Santo Stefano (December 26).
Unless otherwise between the parties or specific provisions of collective bargaining, the worker has the right, during public holidays, to abstain from work while still receiving remuneration.
Unworked holidays
The days just mentioned (with the exception of Sundays) and those considered as such by collective bargaining if they are not worked provide for the employee:
- No additional amount if the worker is paid on a fixed monthly basis, as the salary is considered inclusive of the impact of holidays (except for the falling holidays on Sunday for which a daily salary share is normally equal to 1/26 of the gross monthly salary);
- Remuneration equal to 1/6 of the weekly working time provided for in the contract for employees paid by the hour, both for holidays enjoyed and for those falling on Sundays.
For workers paid by the hour (with the exception of the holidays of 25 April, 1 May and 2 June) the other recurrences do not give the right to pay if the person concerned has been suspended (for example in the redundancy fund) for more than two weeks.
Pay slip example
Let's take the case of the worker Caio with a fixed monthly salary of 1,850 euros gross. If you do not work in December following the holidays of 8, 25 and 26, your salary will be identical to that of the previous and subsequent months, specifically 1,850 euros gross.
On the contrary, if Gaius were paid by the hour (11.50 euros gross hourly wages) with full-time hours provided for by the collective agreement equal to 40 hours a week, the compensation due for each of the holidays enjoyed in December would be:
[11.50 * (40/6)] = 11.50 * 6.67 equivalent to euro 76.71 gross.
Holidays worked
In the case of a worked holiday there are two hypotheses:
- If no compensatory rest periods are provided for the service rendered, the worker (whether paid on a fixed or hourly basis) has the right to an additional compensation for overtime, calculated by applying the increases provided for in the collective agreement applied to the hourly wage;
- If compensatory rest is provided for in an amount equal to the hours worked on the holiday, the employee is entitled only to the increase for work on holidays.
Pay slip example
Let's assume that the employee Tizio has a gross monthly salary of 1,950.00 euros and a full-time working hours. By virtue of the working holiday (6 hours) of December 8, 2021, Tizio is entitled to compensation for overtime in addition to the monthly salary, increased by 30%.
To calculate the amount it will be enough:
- Divide the gross monthly wage by the hourly divisor provided by the CCNL (in our example 173) thus obtaining the hourly wage 1,950.00 / 173 = 11.27 euros;
- Calculate 30% of 11.27 euros equivalent to 3.38 euros;
- Add hourly wages and surcharges for a total of 11.27 + 3.38 = 14.65 euros;
- Multiply the hourly wage increased for overtime by the hours worked on 8 December (equal to 6), thus obtaining 14.65 * 6 = 87.90 euros gross by way of overtime on holidays.
Consequently, the payslip of the month will have as competences:
Monthly salary € 1,950.00
Festive overtime work € 87.90 +
Total € 2,037.90
Different speech if Tizio was paid by the hour. In this case, the hourly wage (equal to 11.27 euros) would be multiplied by the total hours worked in the month (let's assume 176). In addition, the interested party would be entitled to compensation:
- For holidays (in December there are three each equal to 6.67 hours as the weekly timetable is 40 hours);
- For overtime.
Let's draw up the "skills" part of the pay slip:
Ordinary work (176 * 11.27) euro 1983.52
Holiday overtime (as calculated in the previous example) € 87.90 +
Holidays enjoyed [11.27 (6.67 * 3)] € 225.51 +
Total € 2,296.93
What are the days before holidays
The days before holidays are those immediately preceding Sundays (Saturdays) and civil and religious holidays.
With the exception of more favorable conditions provided for by collective labor agreements (national, territorial or company), the days before holidays are not equated at an economic-regulatory level with holidays.
Unless they coincide with Sunday or another public holiday, the salary is identical to that of potentially workable weekdays, albeit with the distinctions mentioned above between workers paid on a fixed monthly basis or on the basis of hours worked.
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