Can an employer withhold holiday pay for full-time employees and pay it to some if the holiday is in the handbook?

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Can an employer withhold holiday pay for full-time employees and pay it to some if the holiday is in the handbook?

Asked on October 30, 2012 under Employment Labor Law, Texas

Answers:

B.H.F., Member, Texas State Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 11 years ago | Contributor

"Holiday pay" is not an automatic right in Texas.  The only thing that your employer is required to pay you is the wages that you have earned.

With that being said, however, paying some employees but not paying other employees can still lead to legal problems for an employer.  If the employer is paying some employees holiday pay, but not paying other employees who are similarly situated, this could be a sign of discrimination.  Not following policy manuals and regular procedures are often used as evidence of sexual, age, and racial discrimination.  For example, if both sets of employees would be otherwise allowed to have the holiday pay beause they were both full-time and both otherwise complied with the handbook, then the group slighted could use this as evidence of disparate treatment in a discrimination suit.

If the groups are different and the policy book allows the the groups to be treated differently, then it would not be as good evidence of discrimination.  For example, if the policy handbook only provided for holiday pay for full-time employees, then part-time employees wouldn't have much of a remedy because being "part-time" is not a class of persons who are protected by dicrimination laws. 

Another option under either situation discribed above is to follow-up with the HR department if the company is big enough to have one.  Often, managers like to take things into their own hands and the HR department usually comes into to fix what the manager never had authority to change. 


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