Q. Our holiday pay policy says that employees must be at work the day before and the day after a holiday. Our office is closed Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. If an exempt employee works Monday and Tuesday but calls in "sick" on Wednesday, can we deny the employee holiday pay?

A. Many employers have policies like this one. The intent behind them is to discourage employees from extending their holiday weekends through strategic use of unscheduled sick time or personal days. With hourly employees, the issue is relatively simple from a wage & hour perspective: follow your policy (and any applicable union contract or employment agreement) and make sure the employee is paid for any time actually worked...