Brenda asked:

We are a small aviation company who is experiencing a little bit of a slow economic cut back. This year we will be shutting down for the Christmas break for an extended week.

The company is making this a shutdown and informing the employees that it will be unpaid. We have salary and hourly employees, the hourly employees will not be paid for not working but how does it work for the salaried employees? Are they not guaranteed pay regardless or does this situation include them as well for no pay for the period of shutdown?

Howard Levitt answered:

If you decide to shut down for a week during Christmas, salaried employees cannot be suspended for a week without being paid. However, the employer can accomplish the same result (of shutting down the business and not paying extra) by requiring their employees to use that week as their allocated vacation time.

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