Get ready for an extra day of work—or a day of free rent, depending on how you look at things
Lesson summary
Hi there everyone, I’m Jeff and this is Plain English for Thursday, February 29, 2024—Leap Day, the extra day in 2024 is today. I had a different lesson topic planned today, but when I saw it was going to come out on February 29, I changed things up so we could talk about Leap Day.
And I looked, the next time February 29 falls on either a Monday or a Thursday will be the year 2052, so we have to take advantage of the topic today, since the next time we’ll be together on Leap Day…I’ll be 70. By the way, you might have just heard me use the phrasal verb “fall on.” That’s the expression I’ll show you later in the episode.
This is lesson number 653, so that means JR, our producer, has uploaded the full lesson content to PlainEnglish.com/653. Let’s get started on today’s story.
Winners and losers of ‘Leap Day’
Calendars and clocks are man-made things. But the days and the years are natural occurrences. A day is a spin on the Earth’s axis; a year is a revolution around the sun. It would be convenient if a revolution around the sun were equal to an exact number of days—but alas, that’s not the case.
A year is equal to 365.2422 days—approximately. Since we organize our lives around days and years, we have to create our calendar to match the movement of the Earth. The Gregorian calendar does a pretty good job of this. As you learned in Lesson 534 , the rule goes like this:
Most years are 365 days. Every year that is divisible by four is a leap year—that means 2024, 2020, 2016, 2028. But there’s just one exception to that. Every centennial year divisible by 400—so the years 1600, 2000, and 2400—they would ordinarily be leap years. But they’re not, to keep the calendar as close as possible to the rotation of the earth around the sun.
For years like this one, 2024, the extra day—the Leap Day—is on February 29, today. And this year, the Leap Day falls on a Thursday. Let’s take a look at how a leap day affects different people.
First, “leapers.” These are people whose birthday is February 29. Only about five million people in the world have a birthday on February 29. Technically, their birthday comes only once every four years. On non-Leap Years, they celebrate on February 28 or on March 1. But they can sometimes run into problems. Some computer systems that request a birthday don’t show February 29 as an option.
Second, statisticians. This is complicated. A lot of economic statistics are calculated on an annual or monthly basis. And a lot of measurements are compared to the year before. A Leap Year typically has 261 workdays—one more day than a typical year has. That might not sound like a lot. But it’s four tenths of a percent longer. A country’s economic growth might be one percent or two percent per year—so a year that’s 0.4 percent longer can make a difference in the statistics.
Most countries—but not all countries—adjust their economic statistics annually to account for Leap Years, so that no Leap Year looks good just because it had the extra day. In effect, they spread the economic value of the extra day around through other years. But some countries, like Australia and China, they don’t adjust for Leap Days. They might have a slightly higher economic growth rate this year than they otherwise would.
Business analysts can have it tough, too. Any type of month-over-month comparison might be askew. If a company compares its January 2024 sales with its January 2023 sales, it has a good idea of how much better it’s doing this year than it did in the same period last year. But if it does that in February, it might be misleading: this February has five percent more working days than the previous February did. (Feel free to pause this lesson to adjust your spreadsheets if you need to.)
Retail shops and hotels have an extra day to make sales—but also an extra day of expenses. Salespeople who have monthly quotas normally have a hard time in February, a short month. But on leap years, they can breathe a little easier: the short month of February is a little less short than normal.
Next up: workers. Anyone who works for an annual wage is out of luck. If your pay is calculated per month or per year, then you’ll work an extra day this year without any type of additional compensation. If you get paid hourly, then you’ll get paid for the hours you work. You’ll have the chance to make more money this year if you work an extra day.
Some salary workers say February 29 should be a holiday. Why should they work an extra day for no extra money?
To them, I say: be careful what you wish for. Because everything you pay for on a monthly basis also includes a free day. Do you pay rent by the month? If so, then you’re getting an extra day of shelter. If you own your house, you might pay property taxes and insurance based on a monthly or yearly rate. If so, you get a tax- and insurance-free day of property ownership. Do you pay Netflix, Spotify, a gym membership, or Plain English Plus+ by the month? If so, then you’re getting an extra day of service—totally free.
You’ll pay extra for anything that’s calculated by the amount you use: gas in your car, food, electricity and gas in your house. You’ll also pay extra for anything calculated by the day. There aren’t many costs that are calculated by the day, but I can think of a big one: interest on loans.
Your monthly mortgage or car payment might be fixed, but the interest you pay on the outstanding balance of a loan is often calculated by the day. Not every bank calculates it this way, but many do.
If you’re a borrower, that means you pay interest on a loan. If your lender calculates interest daily, and charges you 366 days of interest this year, then you’re out of luck : you’re paying more interest because it’s a Leap Year. If you’re a saver, though, you might receive an extra day of interest on your deposits. Investors get an extra day of stock market performance to look forward to. But over the long run, global stock markets are about even on Leap Days.
To sum up: you benefit from Leap Years if your income comes by the hour or by the day, but if your expenses come by the month. You pay extra if your income is fixed by the month or by the year, but if your expenses are more variable.
So I think we have enough information to determine the real winners and losers of Leap Year. The winners would be hourly wage earners who rent their homes, own their cars outright, and have heat, gas, and electricity all included in their rent, and who have large savings account balances at banks that calculate interest by the day. If that’s you, then you’re doing well this Leap Year. The losers are salary workers who have mortgages on their homes, car loans, and low bank account balances—and a birthday on February 29.
Jeff’s take
Plain English Plus+ members are also the big winners of Leap Year. A whole extra day of learning English for absolutely free! We do not charge extra for February 29 at Plain English. So my advice to you, if you’re a Plain English Plus+ member, is go absolutely nuts today. Take full advantage. Watch as many video lessons as you can, write tons of examples, answer a few more of JR’s writing prompts—give us more work. It’s all included. JR and I will work the extra day without any complaint.
And if you’re not a Plain English Plus+ member, there’s still a chance to sign up and take partial advantage of the free Leap Year day. You can do that at PlainEnglish.com/Plus .
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