Because our Earth takes a little longer than 365 days to orbit our sun, which is seen setting here at Bay Front Park in Hamilton last May, we need leap years with their extra day to catch up, which we have this Thursday, Feb. 29.
Elaina Hyde is director of the Allan I. Carswell Observatory and an assistant professor in York University’s faculty of science, department of physics and astronomy.
‘Have to adjust’: Leap year helps keep seasons aligned with calendar, but does it mean more work?
“If we want our years to keep lining up with the seasons and we don’t want spring to move to December or something … we have to adjust the calendars,” says Elaina Hyde.
Because our Earth takes a little longer than 365 days to orbit our sun, which is seen setting here at Bay Front Park in Hamilton last May, we need leap years with their extra day to catch up, which we have this Thursday, Feb. 29.
A lot of busy folks who joke they could use an extra hour in the day, or an extra day in the week, will at least have an extra day this month.
And that’s because it’s a leap year, meaning February has an extra day — Thursday, Feb. 29.
And how does that affect workers?
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Hourly wage earners will clearly get paid for it.
As for salaried workers, if their annual salary is split up into regular instalments, say first and 15th of the month, they won’t get extra compensation unless it’s written in their contract.
A recent story in the Toronto Star on the implication of this leap year on employment also noted that for people who work weekdays there’s not one but two extra days to work this year. With the leap year and the way the weekends line up, there are 262 working days in 2024, compared to 260 in 2023.
Elaina Hyde is director of the Allan I. Carswell Observatory and an assistant professor in York University’s faculty of science, department of physics and astronomy.
York University photo
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It can all be blamed on the fact our calendar year, which is neatly divided into 12 months comprised of 24-hour days, is “an artificial construct created by humans,” according to Elaina Hyde, assistant professor in York University’s department of physics and astronomy and the director of its Allan I. Carswell Observatory.
And our calendar doesn’t precisely match up with the time it takes our Earth to circle the sun.
Our calendar, she explained, “is about one-quarter of a day short for a complete orbit of the actual earth to go around the sun.”
So while our calendar has 365 days in a normal year, the Earth is actually lagging slightly behind, taking 365.24 days to orbit the sun, explained Hyde — hence every four years, we need to “leap” ahead.
“If we want our years to keep lining up with the seasons and we don’t want spring to move to December … we have to adjust the calendars,” she explained.
It’s not quite a perfect solution, so another course corrector is also factored in. Basically leap years are eliminated at the turn of a century unless 400 can be divided into it. So 2000 was a leap year (because 400 can be divided into it), but 1900 wasn’t a leap year, and for those still alive in 2100, there’ll be no leap year. The next leap year on the turn of a century is 2400.
