Hurricane Preparedness Plans: Is Your Business Ready for a Visit from Jim Cantore?
With the onset of the 2025 hurricane season and the first appearance of Jim Cantore at a predicted point of impact, businesses should have their hurricane preparedness plans finalized. A well-done hurricane preparedness plan will address a host of issues, including but not limited to:
- Ensuring the business is properly insured.
- Identifying individuals responsible for implementing the plan.
- Creating lists of important contacts, including but not limited to, workers, insurance agents, contractors that may be needed for repairs, an insurance attorney, and important government agencies/divisions
- Determining whether a business will stay open.
- Preparing facilities for severe weather.
- Understanding employee pay issues.
Businesses should be aware – before a storm – of what each of its insurance policies cover, applicable deductibles, and requirements to successfully make a claim. Decisions must be made if a business will stay open. It is good to have a plan in place before a storm as to how this decision will be made – it will make it easier to prepare in the face of a visit from Jim Cantore when a potential CAT 4 or 5 is approaching.
Once all of the foregoing is in place, it is then that questions of employee pay tend to arise. One question that is frequently asked is “should I pay exempt employees who miss work due to bad weather conditions?” An exempt employee is someone that is not entitled to overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in any workweek. The general rule is that an exempt employee is entitled to receive his or her entire salary for any workweek he or she performed work. This means if the work site closes for a partial week due to severe weather conditions (such as a hurricane), and the exempt employee has worked during that workweek, the employee is entitled to his or her full salary. However, if the employee has unused PTO/vacation time, the employer can require the employee to use those benefits for any time the employee is away from work. If the employee does not have any remaining leave benefit, he or she must be paid.
If the work site remains open during inclement weather and an employee is absent (even if due to transportation issues), the employee can be required to use paid time off. If the employee does not have any paid time off remaining, the employer may deduct a full day’s absence from the employee’s salary. For a more detailed explanation visit dol.gov.
Other payroll issues that arise during and after a storm generally relate to what constitutes compensable time for non-exempt employees. Such questions should be considered as part of a business’s hurricane plan.