Ontario has nine statutory or public holidays (New Years, Family Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Boxing Day). These days are usually not worked by most employees. There may be additional holiday days that some businesses may abide by such as Ontario’s Civic holiday or Remembrance Day, but these holidays are not statutory holidays. This blog will answer what is holiday pay and how an employee qualifies for public holiday pay.
What is public or statutory holiday pay in Ontario?
Holiday pay is a payment entitlement received by a qualified employee for the statutory holiday and these qualifications are set out in Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000 (“ESA”). The ESA sets out certain requirements that employers must abide by when it comes to statutory or public holiday pay in Ontario. If the employer fails to abide by these requirements, they may face certain fines or penalties as those actions would violate the ESA.
Public holiday pay is determined by using the amount of the regular wages earned by the employee in the four weeks prior to the work week with the statutory holiday plus all the vacation pay owed to the employee in that four-week period before the statutory holiday, which is then divided by 20. That amount is what the employer should pay the employee as public holiday pay.
If the employee works on the statutory holiday they may be entitled to either substituted day off from work or additional pay for the statutory holiday called premium pay. Premium pay is the employee’s wages for the statutory holiday multiplied by 1.5.
How does an employee qualify for holiday pay?
An employee who is part time or working on a fixed-term contract will still be eligible for holiday pay under the ESA. The ESA also sets out specific rules about public holiday pay for certain industries like hospitality (restaurants or hotels) or healthcare.
However, to qualify for public holiday pay in most instances, employees must not
1) fail without reasonable cause to work all of their last regularly scheduled workday before the public statutory holiday or all of their first regularly scheduled workday after the public statutory holiday and
2) fail without reasonable cause to work their entire scheduled time on the public statutory holiday if they agreed to or were required by their employer to work that day.
The first qualifier above is sometimes called the “first and last” rule. It is also important to note the “first and last” rule may not necessarily be the exact days before and after the statutory holiday, but it means the day before and after that the employee is scheduled to work.
Failure to attend work without a reasonable cause would be a circumstance that would be out of the employee’s control such as illness or a family emergency. It would include time that an employee decides to take off simply because they do not want to work before a statutory holiday.
If the employee works in an industry that is federally regulated (such as employees who work in banking or in telecommunications), they will have different rules that apply as they are federal employees. For more information about what it is to be a federal employee, read our blog. “Am I a federal employee?“.
How can Zeilikman Law help?
Do not hesitate to contact Zeilikman Law regardless of whether you are an employee or employer and have questions relating to Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000 or workplace rights. Zeilikman Law can be contacted by calling (905) 417-2227 or online here.
