‘Oooh it’s the 29th February today!’ you've all probably said a million times today.
You *could *have proposed to your boyfriend today but seeing as though he’s annoying and you could obvs propose anytime because you don’t need a 12th century sexist tradition dictating your life thank you very much, you're not really sure if/how/why you should celebrate leap day because you’re not actually sure what it does.
Basically, it’s just another day to spend living, breathing and sipping soy lattes. Another day at work. Maybe sending a few emails, who knows. Whatevs.
Well, just you hold on one second, because, according to a petition, you are probably working today for free. Yup, if you are being paid an annual salary then you will be paid a fixed amount – regardless if it is a leap year or not.
The petition, currently up on on Gov UKis asking to make Leap Day a bank holiday as it's creator Daniel Belfield claims that the average salaried employee is out of pocket today by £113, which sounds pretty unfair to us.
According to Daniel, 'The average annual salary in the UK is £26,500. The statutory holiday allowance is 28 days for an average employee working a five day week, meaning that (excluding weekends of 104 days) there are 233 working days, resulting in the average salaried person earning £113 a day. Those on an annual salary work an additional day during a leap year as there are 234 working days. Effectively, a salaried employee works this extra day for no additional payment. On average losing out on £113 per leap year.'
This is devastating stuff. £113 could be spent on plenty of things; not least the things we have saved in our Topshop basket, a weekend away with the girls, a lot of peanut butter M&M’s…
If you are paid hourly however, don’t worry, because you worry because you will get paid for today. If not, sorry to take the sparkle out of your Monday.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.