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Do I have to pay employees if my business closes for a hurricane?

Use the free tool — Hurricane Biz Plan

What the law says about paying employees when you close

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), hourly employees are generally owed only for the hours they actually worked. Salaried exempt employees generally must be paid for any week in which they do some work, even if the storm closes the business for part of that week.

This is a general rule, not legal, tax, or insurance advice, and Hurricane Biz Plan is not a lawyer, accountant, or insurance agent. Read the details and confirm your situation on the U.S. DOL — Natural disasters & the FLSA page.

Write your closure-pay policy before the storm, not during it

Decide now how you will pay hourly and salaried staff if you close, and put it in writing. If your county orders an evacuation for your zone, the plan is simple: close and go, no exceptions — check your zone on the Florida Division of Emergency Management — Know Your Zone page.

If payroll gets tight after the storm

Two programs may help once a disaster is declared or a state of emergency exists:

• U.S. Small Business Administration — low-interest disaster loans for physical damage and economic injury after a declared disaster.
• FloridaCommerce — Emergency Bridge Loan — Florida's short-term emergency loan for small businesses, activated after a state of emergency.

No program is guaranteed to open, and neither source states a loan amount. Confirm eligibility and details directly with each agency.

Ask your insurance agent, in writing

Don't guess what your policy covers. Ask your agent, in writing, these three questions:

• What is my wind deductible amount?
• Is flood covered? It is usually a separate policy — see the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program, and note there is normally a 30-day wait before a new flood policy takes effect.
• Do I have business interruption or civil authority coverage, and what triggers it?

What to do next

This page covers payroll during a closure only. The free Hurricane Biz Plan tool reads what you tell it about your own business — what it is, where it is, how many people work there, and what would hurt most — and builds a one-page plan with a timeline, a call list, the insurance photo list, and the programs to register with. No account. Nothing stored.

Hurricane Biz Plan generates a general continuity plan in plain language; it can be wrong, and it is not insurance, legal, tax or emergency-management advice. Evacuation orders from your county always come first. Confirm coverage with your insurance agent and program details with the SBA, FEMA and FloridaCommerce. Nothing you paste is stored.