Eighty percent of life is just showing up, right? In NH, it’s worth two hours pay

Woody Allen was once quoted as saying, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”

While some may debate the accuracy of that measure of effort, a New Hampshire law provides for hourly pay when an employee just shows up for work.

‘Reporting pay’ in New Hampshire

The law—NH RSA 275:43-a, adopted in 1985—requires, with few exceptions, that when an employee reports to work at the employer’s request and there’s no work for the employee that day, the employer needs to either find work for them at their regular hourly rate or pay them for two hours of work to make up for the inconvenience. Employers in New Hampshire refer to that law as “the two-hour rule” or “reporting pay.”

This unique pay arrangement has most often been triggered when a facility lost power during a winter storm or when staff weren’t needed because of fewer customers that day. There are exceptions to the rule for specialized workplaces such as instructors at ski resorts or public-sector workplaces (e.g., municipal or county), when the job requires less than two hours of work per day, or when the employee wants to leave because of illness or to care for a family member.

Pre-COVID rules

Since the law’s inception, employers have been encouraged to notify workers in advance when they aren’t needed, but the law provides that if the employee doesn’t get the notice and shows up at work, the employer still has to either pay the employee for the trouble of coming in or put the person to work.