Wage and Hour Issues When Disaster Strikes

Marcianne Kuethen

Updated July 3, 2024

With the chaos created by Hurricane Sandy, we employers on the West Coast may be wise to consider what are our obligations to employees if an earthquake or tsunami were to disrupt our workplace.

Here’s an informative excerpt from an article on employment law I just ran across:

“In the event an employer is unable to provide work or open an office due to a natural disaster, the employer’s payroll obligations largely hinge on whether employees are characterized as “exempt” or “non-exempt” from receiving overtime compensation. Employers are generally only required to compensate non-exempt employees for time actually worked. Thus, in the absence of a policy or agreement to the contrary, an employer is usually not required to pay non-exempt employees for missed work occasioned by a hurricane or other weather-related incidents.”

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Originally published on www.thsh.com by Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt LLP.

Marcianne Kuethen

Marcianne Kuethen is a Senior Writer at Amtec, where she has written over 700 blog posts in the past 18 years. Her family has led the company across three generations, from her father who founded Amtec in 1959 to her son Barrett who serves as President and CEO today. Outside of writing, she makes art, music, and gardens.