• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Legal Consumer BLOG

Empowering Consumers Since 2006

Home » Overtime & Minimum Wage Law » Tem­po­rary Hol­i­day Work: What Are Your Legal Rights?

Tem­po­rary Hol­i­day Work: What Are Your Legal Rights?

December 11, 2019 by Lisa Guerin

It’s the most won­der­ful time of the year—when stores across the coun­try hire armies of extra help for the hol­i­days. From ware­house pick­ers and pack­ers to cashiers, gift wrap­pers, dri­vers, greeters, and even Santa’s elves, Amer­i­can busi­nesses hire hun­dreds of thou­sands of employ­ees for tem­po­rary hol­i­day work. Accord­ing to the fed­eral gov­ern­ment, annual employ­ment in retail busi­nesses peaks every Decem­ber, and drops by almost a mil­lion jobs by February.

Although they may not work a full year, tem­po­rary hol­i­day work­ers are employ­ees. That means all of the employ­ment laws that pro­tect year-​round work­ers apply equally to Santa’s helpers. How­ever, because some employ­ment rights depend on earn­ings or hours worked dur­ing the year, not all employ­ees get every benefit.

Here are some answers to fre­quently asked ques­tions about tem­po­rary hol­i­day employees.

Can an employer pay tem­po­rary employ­ees less than reg­u­lar employees?

Yes, with a few caveats. Employ­ers are free to set dif­fer­ent pay scales for tem­po­rary employees—and many do. But employ­ers still have to fol­low wage and hour laws. For exam­ple, an employer may not:

  • pay tem­po­rary employ­ees less than the min­i­mum wage
  • deny over­time pay to tem­po­rary employ­ees who have earned it by work­ing more than 40 hours in a week or, in a few states, more than eight hours in a day, or
  • pay female tem­po­rary employ­ees less than male tem­po­rary employ­ees for doing the same job, in vio­la­tion of the Equal Pay Act.

Do employ­ers have to pay employ­ees extra for work­ing on actual hol­i­days, like Thanks­giv­ing or Christmas?

Many peo­ple believe this is a legal require­ment, but the answer is no. The law doesn’t require employ­ers to pay more for hol­i­day work. That said, some retail­ers that require employ­ees to work on hol­i­days offer extra pay any­way. It’s an incen­tive or reward for tak­ing on these unpop­u­lar shifts.

Do tem­po­rary hol­i­day work­ers get lunch breaks and rest breaks?

It depends on state law. Tem­po­rary employ­ees have the same right to breaks dur­ing the work­day as reg­u­lar employ­ees. If your state requires employ­ers to pro­vide a meal break or rest peri­ods to employ­ees (find out if it does here), then you are legally enti­tled to those breaks whether you work there for a week, a month, or a year.

Do tem­po­rary hol­i­day work­ers qual­ify for paid sick leave or vaca­tion time?

It depends. No law—state or federal—requires employ­ers to pro­vide paid vaca­tion to any­one. That means employ­ers have a lot of lee­way when design­ing a vacation-​time pro­gram. Employ­ers might not give the ben­e­fit to tem­po­rary employ­ees. Or, they might pro­vide paid time only to those who have worked for the com­pany for six months, for example.

The same is true of paid sick leave, as long as state law doesn’t require employ­ers to pro­vide it. In the dozen or so states that do require paid sick leave, employ­ees are gen­er­ally enti­tled to start earn­ing paid sick time as soon as they begin work. There’s a catch, though: Vir­tu­ally every state that man­dates paid sick leave allows employ­ers to impose a wait­ing period (typ­i­cally 90 or 120 days) before an employee can actu­ally use paid sick leave. As a prac­ti­cal mat­ter, this means most tem­po­rary employ­ees won’t get a chance to take a paid sick day.

Do tem­po­rary hol­i­day work­ers get unem­ploy­ment benefits?

It depends on their work his­tory. Gen­er­ally, employ­ees who are out of work through no fault of their own qual­ify for ben­e­fits, as long as they meet the state’s other eli­gi­bil­ity require­ments. If an employer lays off a tem­po­rary sea­sonal worker for lack of work after the hol­i­day, the worker may qual­ify for ben­e­fits. In most states, how­ever, employ­ees must also meet an earn­ings require­ment to get benefits—that is, they must earn a min­i­mum amount in a one-​year period (called the “base period”) before they apply for ben­e­fits. And the base period usu­ally ends more than a full cal­en­dar quar­ter before you apply for ben­e­fits; it may not even include your tem­po­rary job. But if they earn enough in the base period, tem­po­rary work­ers may qual­ify for unem­ploy­ment benefits.

More Infor­ma­tion

To learn more about rights and pro­tec­tions for work­ers in your state, see Legal Consumer’s wage and hour law learn­ing cen­ter.

Filed Under: Overtime & Minimum Wage Law, Unemployment Benefits Tagged With: holiday work, temporary employee

About Lisa Guerin

Lisa Guerin has covered employment law topics for Legal Consumer since 2014. After getting her law degree from Berkeley Law, she worked in government, public interest, and private practice, specializing in employment law. She was a legal editor and author at Nolo for many years, where she wrote or contributed to more than a dozen books, mostly on employment issues. She volunteers with groups that help shelter and rescue dogs, and she enjoys hiking with her own Very Good Boy in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Primary Sidebar

Legal info by zip code (legal​con​sumer​.com)

  • Bank­ruptcy law
  • Unem­ploy­ment law
  • Wage and hours law
  • ACA/​Obamacare law
  • Health­care law
  • Child cus­tody law
  • Inher­i­tance law
  • Stu­dent loan law
  • Democ­racy law

More Blog Articles

  • Bank­ruptcy
  • Democ­racy
  • Child Cus­tody
  • Inher­i­tance Law
  • Oba­macare, ACA
  • Over­time, Min­i­mum Wage Law
  • Unem­ploy­ment Benefits

Deprecated: Hook genesis_footer_creds_text is deprecated since version 3.1.0! Use genesis_pre_get_option_footer_text instead. This filter is no longer supported. You can now modify your footer text using the Theme Settings. in /var/www/blog/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 5758

© 2023 | Relational Vision LLC, dba LegalConsumer.com | Disclaimer: Legal information is not legal advice
Self-help services may not be permitted in all states. The information provided on this site is not legal advice, does not constitute a lawyer referral service, and no attorney-client or confidential relationship is or will be formed by use of the site. The sponsored attorney advertisements on this site are paid attorney advertising. In some states, the information on this website may be considered a lawyer referral service. Your use of this website constitutes acceptance of the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.