New Zealanders work one day for free every leap year - February 29 not factored into salary

An employment expert has shed some light on a generally ignored quirk of the calendar that every leap year New Zealanders work an extra day for free - as employers don’t account for February 29.

Employment relations practitioner Max Whitehead said the contract for each salaried employee states how much you are paid per annum.

However, your contract doesn’t take into account that extra day every four years.

“It doesn’t specify how it’s calculated every day. Some employers now, because the Holidays Act is such a problem, calculate one day’s leave,” he said.

“No one has ever challenged the leap year issue. If it was challenged, I don’t know where it would go.”

Whitehead said every 365 days a year, employees get four weeks of leave, however, during a leap year, that doesn’t change.

Max Whitehead says any effort to claw back salary lost on Leap Day would be too costly. Photo / Supplied

He estimated if the daily pay were to change every leap year, it would be by a minimal amount.

“Employees would receive a small part of a day’s pay, so people just go with the flow rather than challenging it,” he said.

“There would be some litigious people out there who would have a go at it, but if you’re paying for someone to challenge it, it would be a very expensive process.”

However, for organisations such as Auckland Council and central government, the cost would be significant if they had to pay a fraction extra each year.

As of September 30 last year, there were 64,222 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff employed by the New Zealand Government, while, in 2021/22 Auckland Council employed 11,181 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff.

According to Stats NZ, there were 2.2 million salaried employees in June 2022, and the median hourly earning in June 2023 was $31.61.

Whitehead said, that in one of the organisations for whom he worked, the chief executive proposed there could be saving made during the leap year.

“He suggested that people’s salaries should be docked a day on regular years and then on leap years go back to regular pay,” he said.

“Us and HR were horrified. We killed it and said it would cause a lot of problems with employees.”

“The CEO thought it would save money.”

Why do we have leap years?

Earth takes 24 hours to complete a rotation on the axis, and 365 of those rotations make up a calendar year.

However, the planet takes six hours longer than the 365 days on the calendar - it actually takes 365.2422 days to complete the journey.

Over time, that drags our calendar out of sync with the seasons, so every four years an extra day is tacked on the end of February to reset the calendar.